


To The End

by frerardwayero



Category: Bandom, My Chemical Romance
Genre: M/M, Zombie Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-08-03
Updated: 2015-01-11
Packaged: 2018-02-11 16:09:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 19
Words: 37,757
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2074530
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frerardwayero/pseuds/frerardwayero
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Frank Iero is only 13 when weird stories of 'Walkers' and 'Biters' start to appear on TV. When this disease spreads, to their city, his mom takes Frank as far away as she can, and they join up with a camp of other survivors and try to continue their lives there. 4 years later, the camp they'd been staying is completely overrun by a giant herd of Walkers, and during his escape, Frank is separated from his group and his mom. With only a hand gun, a knife and a few bullets, will Frank be able to survive on his own, or will he meet someone that might just be able to help him?</p><p>Rated T+ for now, but rating will go up.<br/>(Also, just to note, I tagged this as graphic depictions of violence because its a zombie-fic and so there is zombie killing in it, but there won't be anything too violent in it. However, that could be a trigger for someone, so that was why I thought it best to tag it as that.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Never Coming Home/Introduction

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! So, I am quite a big fan of The Walking Dead, and so I decided to write a Frerard fan fiction based in the Zombie Apocalypse. I hope you enjoy- this first chapter will just a little back story, but it would probably be best to read it just so you can know what exactly happened to Frank before his camp went down, and what happened when it did. Thank you for reading, and don't forget to leave kudos and comments!
> 
> Also just to note - the story might not always be called 'To The End'- it was just because it was the first MCR song title I thought of that would be an OK title for now.

Frank was only 13 when he heard about the weird stories on the news. He never watched the news, and didn't actually believe the rumours his friends told him at school- the ones about people dying, coming back from the dead, and biting and killing other people. In fact, two weeks had gone by since he'd heard the first rumour, when he actually overheard his teachers and his mom talking about it. His teachers had called these things 'lamebrains', and his mom had called them 'biters'. Frank decided to sit down with his mom one evening, and watch the news. And surely enough, the headlining news was that more of these 'biters' had come into existence, and more people were being sent to research centres across the country, to see if there was a cure for whatever was happening to these people. 

Frank felt a shiver go down is spine. He knew that something bad was happening, something that might just turn his life upside down- and definitely _not_ for the good. He watched more video clips of these people- these  _things_ \- attacking people in broad daylight, and listened to more information of what the people on TV had to say, watching the way they didn't look bored like they usually did. This time, they looked worried.  

"Mom, what's happening to these people?" Frank finally decided to ask his mom.

"I don't know, honey." She answered as calmly as possible, but Frank could hear the tremble in her voice and knew that if his mom was scared, then something really bad was happening, and whatever it was wouldn't end up good. 

* * *

Barely a week after Frank had finally realised that none of what was going on was a rumour that one of his stupid friends had made up, was when things started _really_ getting out of control. He heard that a few tiny countries around the world had already fallen, due to the small population and the high amount of people who were dying because of this disease. 

His school had closed, as had most schools in the country- this disease was spreading like wildfire and just in case anything or anyone attacked the kids, the Government and parents didn't want to put the kids in danger. Frank stayed at home, which he usually loved doing, but this time, he got bored quickly. There were none of these 'biters' in his city, or at least none that he'd heard of. Alright, he wasn't a huge fan of going to school, but it got boring at home when all you had to do all day was either read comic books, play guitar or help your mom tidy up the house.

Frank begged his mom to let him go and see his friends, but she said no, because she'd never forgive herself if anything happened to him. Instead Frank tried getting his friends to come to his house, but they all came back with the same answer: "My mom said no, in case anything attacks me."

In the end, Frank gave up, and just re-read all of his comics, and did the dishes when his mom asked him to, and silently prayed to God that whatever was going on outside his house would end soon because he was sick of only getting fresh air out in his yard and not actually being able to learn anything, and would give a lot to have one last lesson with his Geography teacher Mr Carson, even if he was a total asshole and seriously hated Frank. 

Frank had just been about to go to sleep one night when he heard gunshots. He bolted up in bed, and thought maybe something was getting robbed, or maybe a car just backfired, and he shouldn't really be worried, but then he heard screams. Then again, someone could just be playing a really scary video game...outside...at night. Then Frank started to worry, because that didn't sound plausible at all. He jumped out of bed, ran over to the window, and looked down at the street. There were four, or maybe five people walking down the street, towards another couple of people. The people that weren't walking were holding guns, and were shooting at the people walking towards them. It was only then that Frank realised that they weren't _people_ walking- at least not anymore. 

He ran out of his bedroom, as fast as his feet would take him, and went to his mom's room. She was fast asleep, but Frank felt completely obliged to tell her that there were a few undead people outside their house.

"Mom...Mom..." Frank said, shaking his mom as he attempted to wake her up.

"Huh?...Frankie, why are you in here?" She asked, still groggy from being asleep.

"There are a few of those...things, outside. What do we do, mom?" He asked. Her eyes went wide, and she sat upright. 

"Is someone...taking care of them?" Frank nodded at her question, and then she laid back down. "If anymore come...we're going to have to leave, Frankie, you do understand this, right?" Frank nodded again, and his mom smiled softly at him. "Okay, honey. Just...try and go back to sleep. Love you." His mom said. 

"Love you too, mom." Frank said, and then kissed her cheek, before going back into his own bedroom, and laying down in his bed. He heard more shouts coming from outside, but other than that, everything was quiet. And maybe a little too quiet. 

* * *

Frank realised, as he was stuffing his clothes and comics in a bag, and zipping his guitar up in its case, that this was probably going to be the last time he'd ever see his bedroom. He rolled his Black Flag poster up, and grabbed his CD's, and stuffed them all in another bag, before hurrying back downstairs to help his mom load them in the car. His mom had already packed as much food as she could find in the cupboards and pantry into the trunk of the car, and her own bags were sitting safely on the back seat. Frank put his own bags and guitar next to his moms bags, and then went back into the house so he could finish rummaging through the cupboards to see if his mom had missed anything. 

"Frankie, hurry up, please." His mom shouted to him from where she was at the front door. Frank finished looking, and then he walked through the living room to get back to the front door. But he saw the picture of him and his mom from when he was 10, and quickly grabbed it on the way out. His mom had all of the photo albums, but she'd managed to forget that picture. 

 When Frank got outside, his mom locked the door, and Frank hurried round to the car, before climbing in the front seat. His mom soon joined him, and instantly started driving. "We're going to pick your father up, and then we're going to straight to Grandma and Grandpa's, okay?" His mom asked. Frank nodded, and then rested back in his seat. This was going to be a long drive. 

But only ten minutes into their drive, they ran into a huge block of traffic. Nobody was moving, and people were starting to get out of their cars and walk round to cars in front of them and shout at them to try and get them to move. Linda stayed in her car with Frank, and watched on as more people started shouting at each other, and become more and more restless with each passing second. _It wasn't the end of the world if they were held up for a few more minutes_ , Frank thought, and then he laughed to himself because, oh yeah, it was the end of the world, anyway. 

Frank suggested for his mom to just turn the car around and head back the way they came, and go down another road to get where they wanted to go. Linda started to, but then she gasped when she saw one of the things- a Biter- attack a person who had just gotten out of their car. It bit down on the persons arms, and the person screamed, which meant everyone started getting out of their cars to see what was happening. Someone shot at the thing, and tried to shoot the person as well, but they were pushed back by another person who had joined in whatever was going on. "You can't just kill a person! That's murder!" The person who had stepped in shouted at the person with a gun.

"Yeah, well if I don't kill him, he's gonna turn and kill me and you and everyone else here too!" And with that, Frank heard another gun shot and then he heard more screams, and saw more of the Biters come out of nowhere. He took his mom's hand, and squeezed it. "Mom, we're gonna have to turn the car around or get our stuff and run." Frank reminded her. Linda nodded, and, though shakily, grabbed the wheel, and turned the car around. 

* * *

They were on the road for almost two months when they came across the camp. Frank had begged his mom to go find his dad, but when they got to where Frank Senior was supposed to be, he simply wasn't there. So they kept on driving, and driving, and turning around and coming back the way they came. Frank wanted to keep the radio on everyday, so he could listen to music and pretend this wasn't happening, but his mom reminded him that it would drain the cars battery. But every few hours, they turned the radio on for one minute, and tried to find a station that wasn't playing static back to them, or the same message of 'The New Jersey Government Camp is an infected free zone and is open for anyone who is not already infected. Please report here, so we can register you as alive and so you can continue to be safe.' 

Frank's mom wanted to go, but Frank had seen this in movies before- the camp that was protected by the army was always first to fall, and though those circumstances were fictional, Frank decided to trust his instinct and tell his mom they were safer on the road.

But when they finally found the camp, they both thought God finally wanted them to be safe.

It was a camp of little over 20 people. There was a family of four, and the two kids were a boy and a girl, and both a year younger than Frank. There was also a young couple, a man and his brother, three sisters, a woman, her son and her friend, an old man and his granddaughter, a family of three, a teenager who was on his own, and a man and his best friend, who was luckily a doctor. Frank and his mom were instantly accepted into the group, and quickly became a part of this tiny community, which was based in the suburbs, in a blocked out area with apartment buildings and a few shops. 

Frank realised that he loved it here, because he had some new friends, and he was able to be taught a few things, and feel like he was sort of back at school. The camp grew as Frank grew- more and more people came, a few people died whilst on runs for food, but overall, nothing impacted him too much. He learnt how to shoot a gun, and he learnt how to throw knives. He even attracted the attention of Jamia, a girl who had only recently joined the camp. 

When Frank turned 17, he finally worked up the courage to ask Jamia if she wanted to be his girlfriend, and, as he'd sort of expected, she said yes. It was all good for Frank- his mom loved Jamia, and Jamia's parents loved him. Jamia was gorgeous, and Frank knew that if this apocalypse had never had happened, he would never have met her, and all the friends he had made. 

However, it was not long after Christmas, when everything went to shit. Frank woke up in the middle of the night. Jamia was asleep next to him- she'd fallen asleep after he'd stayed up almost all evening and some part of the night trying to teach her how to play guitar. But then it was lights out, and Jamia didn't really want to move from Frank's bed, and so she'd stayed with him, and almost instantly fallen asleep, with Frank joining her not long after. But something had startled him, and he couldn't exactly quite put his finger on it. 

He decided to slip out of bed, and walk over to his window. He had this sudden _de ja vu_ feeling as he pushed open the curtains, and looked out onto the street. He looked outside- really he should only see the night guards patrolling down the street, but though he saw them, he didn't see them patrolling. They had their guns pointed at something, and then he saw what that something was. It was a Biter. And not just one of them, either. There was at least twenty, maybe thirty.

" _BREACH. THERE'S BEEN A BREACH. EVERYONE EVACUATE_!" Frank's heart was pounding in his chest when he heard this being shouted out. He almost tripped over as he walked back to his bed. He shook Jamia awake, and she looked confused, but then worried when she saw how scared Frank looked. "Huh?...Frankie, what is it?" She asked, Frank couldn't get there words out but then someone shouted the same sentence as before. Jamia shot up out of bed, and quickly grabbed onto Frank.

"T-The things...they're outside. What do we do?" Frank finally got out. Jamia hugged him quickly, before grabbing her shoes from beside the bed, and lacing them up. 

"Is someone taking care of them?" Jamia asked, and Frank nodded. "Well, more are gonna come, so we're gonna have to get your mom and find my parents and leave." Jamia said. Frank nodded again. He then realised that he'd need to put on his shoes as well, and maybe get some weapons too. He put on his boots, and luckily he hadn't changed out of the clothes he was wearing yesterday. He grabbed his leather jacket, and gave his other jacket to Jamia, before shakily fiddling around in his bedside table and pulling out his knives, and his two guns- giving Jamia one, because she was a better shot with guns than he was, but nowhere near as good at throwing knives. 

Linda was already awake, and dressed, and holding a gun. They all ran out of the apartment, alongside a lot of other confused and scared people, holding guns and bats and whatever weapons they could find in such short notice. 

On the street, it was mayhem. Dead bodies of both Biters and humans were everywhere. Frank felt bile raise in his throat, threatening to force its way out, but he swallowed it down, and attacked a Biter that was coming towards him. More and more Biters were spilling in through the gates. Babies and children were crying, people were screaming and shouting, but all Frank cared about right now was his girlfriend and his mom. They were close behind him, and Frank knew they were going to be safe, and he wouldn't get separated from them, and-

A Biter that he hadn't noticed launched itself at Jamia, but Frank didn't even realised it until it had scratched her arm, and started to get to her neck. Another Biter attacked him, but he stabbed it in the head quickly enough so he didn't get hurt. People pushed past him, and more Biters attacked him, until he couldn't even see his mom and Jamia anymore. He felt his heart shatter, and his brain whirr at a hundred miles per hour. He needed to get back to them, but then more Biters attacked him, and all he knew was to run. And so he did. 


	2. Late Dawns And Early Sunsets

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 2! So now the story is obviously going to go at a bit of a slower pace because I had to fit in everything that happened before Frank left the camp in Chapter 1. Does that make sense? Like it will be more descriptive and stuff...yeah, anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter. Also- anyone see the .weighted. music video? It was awesome...but Frank why are you ripping out your fans' insides???

Frank had been running for hours, and his legs were starting to give in. He only had 5 bullets left, and he needed to get some more ammo soon. He couldn't remember how many Biters he'd killed, but he was sure it was a lot, because not only was his gun almost empty, but his knife was covered in blood too. Frank hadn't killed this many Biters in the four years since the world had practically ended- whenever he went on runs, they rarely encountered any Biters, which meant Frank had only had to kill four or five during his time at the camp. 

Frank needed a drink, or food soon. His throat was beginning to dry up from how much he'd been running, and he could feel his stomach rumbling as he ran. He saw a convenience store, and started to head over, but a Biter threw itself at the glass from the inside, and the glass cracked, almost shattering. Frank decided that he could wait a little while longer, or maybe find a stream and get some water from there. 

But honestly, he didn't even know where he was. He knew he should have stopped running ages ago- find a Biter-free house near the camp and wait in there until dawn, and then meet up with any other survivors. He should have gone back and fought the Biters and saved his mom and Jamia. He should have protected them. But Frank had been scared, and the only thing he could think of was staying alive, because if Jamia and his mom needed him, then alive was what he needed to be. 

He thought about doubling back on himself, maybe finding a place to sleep for a few hours, and then making his way back to the camp tomorrow, and finding food on the way there too. But what if a huge herd had been passing through? What if Frank was killed on the way back, or when he got there? Frank didn't want to die- in fact, that was the last thing he wanted. 

His legs finally gave out, and he dropped to the floor, in the middle of the street. This wasn't a good place to stop, because the Biters could get him easily here. He forced himself to stand up, and he dragged his aching legs along the street, to a house with a Trans Am parked out front. Frank stopped to admire the car for a second- he'd always liked Trans Ams, since he was quite young, and thought that when he woke up from his sleep, he'd try and hot wire the car and maybe drive it back home (he'd been taught how to drive back at the camp when he was 16). 

He walked up the path to the house. The door was closed, but it looked like it had been kicked in by someone who had been there before. That was handy- Frank wasn't very good at kicking doors in, anyway. He pushed the door open, and started to walk inside, his hand on his knife incase he needed to use it- but then everything went black. 

* * *

"-fucking idiot, Mikey." One voice said. 

"Gee, I thought he was a Walker, it was a fucking accident." Another voice spat back. 

"Mikey is an idiot, okay? Stop being a whiny bitch, Gerard." Another voice cut in. 

"Eat shit, Bob." The first voice said.

"Guys, he coulda been bit, but he wasn't. You're all idiots." Another voice said, and then everyone fell silent. 

Frank was too drowsy to even try and open his eyes. So he fell back asleep again. 

* * *

 

Frank didn't know how long he'd been asleep, but when he woke up, the room he was in was almost entirely dark, apart from one candle which illuminated the corner of the room Frank was in. Frank sat up, his heart pounding in his chest. He had no idea where he was, because he definitely wasn't in his bed back at the camp. He went to grab his knife from his belt, but his knife wasn't there, and nor was his belt. He shuffled around, trying to move, but then he realised he was tangled up in a blanket. 

"Oh, good, you're awake," Frank's heart hammered in his chest when he heard the voice. He had no idea where it was coming from, but when the person stepped into the light of the candle, he guessed that they'd said it. "I'm sorry, my friend knocked you out when you walked in. He wasn't really expecting another human to just walk into the house." 

Frank blinked a few times. He'd never seen this person in his life. He had dark brown, curly hair, and even darker brown eyes, and was at least a few inches taller than Frank, and probably a few years older too. Frank didn't know whether to trust this guy or not- he'd never had to not trust someone during these past few years, because everyone at the camp knew everyone, and everyone was trustworthy. Frank shuffled back a little on whatever he was laying on. The guy put his hands up a little, trying to show Frank that he wasn't going to hurt him. "Bob has your gun and your knife in the kitchen. He's cleaned the knife and he's reloaded the gun for you."

Frank didn't know what to say. He should probably thank this guy, but he still didn't trust him, whether or not this 'Bob' guy had cleaned his knife and reloaded his gun or not. "We're not gonna hurt you, you don't have to worry," The guy said, as if Frank was going to relax at that- they could be cannibals for all he knew. "Apart from Mikey, as I said, but that was an accident."

Frank continued to say nothing, and watch as the guy watch him. Someone else walked through the door, holding a tray with a bottle of water, a spoon, and a bowl of something on it. He also had dark brown hair, but light brown eyes hidden behind a pair of glasses. He was a little shorter than the other guy, but skinnier, and was probably around the same age as Frank- and Frank guessed that this was probably Mikey, from the way he looked a little nervous when he walked in. He handed Frank the tray, who warily took it from him. "We don't have much food, here- I mean, there's more in the car but its too dark to see anything. So, uh, theres some water and some soup." Mikey said. Frank looked down in the bowl, and then back up at Mikey and the other guy. 

"Thanks." Frank whispered, and then grabbed the bottle and downed it in almost one go. He then picked up the spoon and started eating the soup as quick as he possibly could. But then the guy grabbed his wrist, and stopped him from eating anymore. Frank had flashes of this guy stabbing him and then eating him (okay, Frank was really sure they were cannibals), but then the guy let his wrist go again.

"Stop eating so fast, yeah? You have plenty of time. We're not gonna kick you out...I mean unless Gerard says you can't stay, then-"

"Ray, stop. Gee won't make him go...probably." Mikey said, and Frank ignored them, and continued to eat his soup. When he was finished, Ray took his tray back to wherever Mikey had got in from in the first place. Mikey sat down next to Frank on the couch (Frank had only noticed that it was a couch when he sat up to eat), and he took his glasses off, and wiped them on his t-shirt. 

"Did you have a camp?" Mikey asked. "Or are you on your own?" 

Frank didn't say anything for a few seconds, but then he nodded. "I...I _had_ a camp. Now I'm on my own."

"If you don't mind me asking, what happened?" 

"We, uh...There was a takeover. A herd of Biters, they managed to get through the gates, and I escaped. I had to leave my mom and my girlfriend behi-" Frank's voice failed him, and he stared down at the floor. 

"I'm sorry dude. We- the four of us- got separated from our group a year ago. I lost my parents, and my girlfriend. We all lost someone." 

"Sorry." Frank said, and Mikey shrugged. 

"I still have my brother, and two of my best friends, and that's all I could ask for, honestly." 

Ray and who Frank assumed was Bob- a tall, blonde guy- walked into the room. Bob had a belt-  _Frank's_ belt- slung over his shoulder.

"Gerard wants to talk to-" Ray said, and pointed at Frank. Frank looked at Mikey, who was looking at Ray. 

"Okay. Frank, listen, my brother can be a little...intimidating. He means the best though, okay? He's gonna ask you three questions, and just...answer him honestly, okay?" Mikey said, and Frank nodded. Who the hell was Gerard, anyway? 

Frank stood up, and then followed Ray out of the room. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find out next time what Frank's fate will be. Also, I hope you enjoyed it! Don't forget to leave kudos/comments. Thanks! :)


	3. Now I Know That I Can't Make You Stay...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I REALLY LOVE WRITING THIS STORY OKAY. I don't know, i just really love writing fanfics set in the apocalypse. I also love reading fanfics set in the apocalypse, and tbh I can't find many Frerard ones, which is sad. If you know/have written any zombie apocalypse Frerard fanfics then please message me the link and I will check them out. Anyway, thank you for reading everything so far, and here is Chapter 3 and we will discover Frank's fate... whether Gerard will let him stay with the group, or whether Frank will have to leave and fend for himself...

When Frank walked into the kitchen, Gerard, or at least who he assumed was Gerard, was sitting at the table, and flicking through a book, and drinking from a water bottle. Frank looked back to ask Ray whether he should just go over or not, but Ray had already left. So Frank just walked over to Gerard, and sat down on the seat opposite him. Gerard had dark brown hair, and Frank couldn't see his eye colour because Gerard was looking down. 

Gerard didn't even look up from the book when Frank sat down, and so Frank coughed a little, trying to get Gerard's attention. Gerard huffed, and then closed the book, before looking up at Frank. "I'm sorry that my little brother knocked you out earlier," Gerard said, and Frank was surprised- if Gerard was Mikey's brother, they didn't really look much alike, apart from the hair colour and the eye colour, which Frank could now see was light brown. "He thought you were a Walker."

"A Walker?" Frank asked- he'd heard Mikey say that, but he didn't know what Mikey had meant, and hadn't bothered to ask. 

"I mean the dead. We call them Walkers because they're the walking dead." Gerard answered.

Frank knew he must have seemed so stupid for not realising that. "We- I call them Biters. Because they-"

"Bite you," Gerard cut Frank off, smirking a little. "I get it." Frank nodded, and smiled a little at Gerard. But Gerard didn't smile back, just relaxed back in his chair, and folded his arms. 

"First things first, I need to know your name, and your age." Gerard said. 

"Frank. Uhm, Frank Iero. I'm seventeen." Frank replied. 

"Well I'm Gerard Way, and I'm twenty-one. My brother is Mikey Way, he's eighteen, the blonde guy is Bob Bryar, he's nineteen, and then theres Ray Toro, and he's also twenty-one. And is the only other normal person around here, in my opinion."

Frank nodded, and made a mental note of those names, because if he was staying with these guys, he'd need to remember that.  _If_ he was staying. 

"Now, Frank, I need to ask you a few questions. Usually I ask three, but I have more questions to ask you."

"Okay." Frank said. Gerard uncrossed his arms and leaned forward in his chair. 

"Okay. Right. Were you with a group before you got here? Or are you on your own?"

"I was with a group for like four years," Frank answered. "With my mom, and my girlfriend and a lot of other people...but then a herd passed through our camp and I ran for it. So now I'm on my own."

"Why didn't you stay with your mom and girlfriend? Why did you run?"

"I-I...I got scared, and people were running anyway...so I just ran too. I didn't want to, I wanted to help my family, but my feet wouldn't stop moving and...now I'm here."

"How many people were at your camp?" 

"Like... I don't know...a hundred, give or take. Part of the street was cornered off and we set up camp there."

"Did you have food there?" Gerard asked. "A bed? Weapons?"

"Yeah. We had plenty of food and weapons. We even had our own apartments and bigger families had houses."

"Okay. Well, last three questions. How many Walkers have you killed?"

"Four or five, up until today. Now...maybe twenty-seven?"

"How many people have you killed?"

"What the fuck?" Frank quickly spat back. _People?!_ Who the fuck kills people if they're not infected?

"It's a question, Frank. Answer it."

"None, and I never would, dude. Who fucking kills humans?"

"You'd be surprised." Gerard replied. "My last question is _why_?"

"What do you mean  _why_? Why haven't I killed any people?" Frank asked, horrified at what Gerard was asking him. 

"Yeah." Frank gaped at Gerard, and Gerard looked completely confused.

"Why haven't I killed anyone? I don't know let me just think about that one OH YEAH that's called murder and it's illegal and I am not a murderous person, in any situation."

Gerard laughed- he fucking laughed at Frank!- and then clapped a few times, trying to be sarcastic. "Congratulations, Frank. You've passed the test. You can stay with us if you want."

"What if I don't want to stay? What if I want to go out and look for my girlfriend and mom?" Frank dared to ask. Gerard just shrugged. 

"Then that's your choice. I know I can't make you stay, but it sure as hell is a lot safer here than out there. If you want to risk your life looking for your family, then go ahead. I can't stop you." Gerard answered.

Frank decided that that was a good enough. "If you don't mind, I'm gonna stay for a bit. Thanks for letting me stay h-"

"But let me just tell you something- if this entire group is dying of hunger and a human is about to shoot you over the last can of beans in the last stocked shop in the entire state, then don't fucking let them- you're gonna have to fight back. And that might mean taking another humans life, because now that you're part of this group, you're gonna have to pull your weight." Gerard said. 

Frank hadn't ever heard of anything so ridiculous- as if someone would shoot him over a can of beans!- but he just nodded, to keep Gerard happy,  and then left the kitchen, and returned to the living room, where he'd been in the first place.

Mikey instantly got up off of the couch, and sent Frank and worried look. "What happened?" Mikey asked.

"He said I could stay. But like, asked me way more questions than just three. He also asked me how many humans I'd killed. Like, what the fuck?"

Mikey looked at Ray, then Bob, then back at Frank. "Yeah...it's just a question he asks. In case of any murderers trying to worm their way into the group so they can kill us all while we're sleeping." Mikey laughed, and then sat back down on the couch.

Frank raised his eyebrow, half believing that that may have happened before, but the other half thinking that Mikey had a strange sense of humour. Ray took Frank upstairs, and showed him the room he was going to be sleeping in- it was with Gerard and Mikey, because there were only two bedrooms in the house and the one Bob and Ray shared was small enough as it was, but hopefully Frank wouldn't mind. And Frank didn't, not really. He climbed into the bed that he was going to be sleeping in. It was nowhere near as comfortable as his bed back at the camp, however, he almost instantly fell asleep. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, sorry that chapter was so short (was it short? idk, it felt like it). But as soon as I post this, I'm gonna go write (some of, maybe all of, if I don't fall asleep) the next part. Thank you for reading/leaving kudos/commenting. All is appreciated and is super awesome!!!


	4. ...But Where's Your Heart?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New chapter! I'm not gonna lie- I love writing this. Like a lot. This chapter is gonna involve a lot more fighting/violence because that was gonna have to be some of that at one point. Nothing too graphic probably, though. I hope you like it!

When Frank woke up from his sleep, light was flooding in through the curtains, and he heard light snores coming from the other side of the room. He sat up, yawned and stretched, and then stood up. One of the other two beds in here was completely empty, and the other had Mikey curled up on it. Mikey let out a rather obnoxiously loud snore, and Frank didn't know whether to laugh because it was funny, or be worried that that would attract a load of Biters to where they were. 

Frank pushed the door of the room open, and then closed it behind him. He hadn't really been able to properly see the house he was in because it had been dark when he had first come up here, and so as he walked along the corridor, he looked at the pictures on the walls. There was a picture of a family, and Frank sighed, as he wondered if they had survived, or if anyone at all in the picture had survived. 

He walked down the stairs, and went into the living room. Now that it was light, he could see that it was quite a big living room, and there was a huge TV in one corner, but the screen was smashed, and so there was no way he could try and fix it and see if the house had any DVD's in it he could watch. 

Frank heard noise coming from the kitchen, and so decided to go out there. As he expected, Gerard was there, putting some coffee in five mugs, and then staring at the pan of boiling water which was bubbling away on the stove. Frank walked over to him, and watch as Gerard carefully poured the water into the mugs, and then stirred them. 

He pushed one of the mugs over to Frank, and Frank thanked him, before sipping at the bitter drink. He silently wished that they had some milk, because he wasn't really a big fan of black coffee, and they always had milk back at the camp. But he wasn't at the camp, and so black coffee would just have to do. Gerard apparently loved black coffee, as he sipped at his own drink without looking even slightly grossed out by it. 

"Did you sleep well?" Gerard asked, after swallowing a mouthful of his coffee.

"Yeah, thanks." Frank smiled at Gerard over the top of his mug. After that, they continued to drink their coffee's in silence, until Mikey walked into the kitchen, and grabbed his own drink. 

"I'm so tired." Mikey yawned. Gerard rolled his eyes at his little brother. 

"You haven't been on a run in days and you have the front to tell me you're  _tired?_ " Gerard said, and Mikey shrugged. 

"I'm sorry. You know I get tired easily."

"No Mikey, you don't get tired easily, you're just really fucking lazy." Gerard said, making Frank laugh. 

Bob and Ray appeared in the kitchen barely a minute later, and then after they'd drunk their coffees, Gerard made everyone sit down at the table. Gerard was sitting at the head of the table, and Mikey and Frank were sitting one side, with Bob and Ray at the other. "We haven't been on a run in two days," Gerard began. "We don't have much coffee left, or medicine, and we need more ammo and any other weapons we can get our hands on. Ray and Bob, I want you two here, making sure there are no Walkers attempting to break in here. Mikey, Frank? The three gonna go into the mall and see if there are any shops worth raiding."

"Gerard-" Mikey started, but Gerard ignored him. 

"You two, go get your weapons," Gerard said, looking at Frank and Mikey. "Ray, is there enough gas in the car?"

"I guess so, we haven't used it since we got here, so..." Ray shrugged. 

"Okay, good. It's-" Gerard checked his watch. "Nine a.m. We leave at ten." Frank nodded at Gerard who left the kitchen the moment he finished speaking. Frank then looked at Mikey, who stood up, and then followed his brother out of the room. 

"You might wanna pick up some more clothes while you're in the mall." Ray said.

"Why? I have loads of-" Frank cut himself, frowning at what he'd just said. No, he didn't have loads of clothes. He had loads of clothes back at the camp, but he wasn't there now. He only had his leather jacket, his boots, and the t-shirt, jeans, underwear and socks he was wearing right now. Bob also still hadn't given him his belt back, and his jeans were just a little too big for him, which meant his jeans kept on falling down, which reminded him that he'd need to ask Bob for that back before he left. 

At 10 (and after Frank got his belt, gun and knife back), the five of them all stood around the front door. Gerard was holding a bat, Mikey was loading his gun, and shoving a few knives into his backpack, and Frank pushed his knife (and also a set of throwing knives Bob had given him) into his belt. "Bob, Ray, make sure one of you is out back, and the other is out here," Gerard said, and Bob and Ray nodded. Gerard then turned to Mikey and Frank. "You two ready?" He asked, and Mikey and Frank nodded. 

Gerard pulled his backpack onto his back, and then nodded at Bob and Ray. Gerard opened the front door, and Mikey walked out first, closely followed by Frank, and then Gerard. There was only one Biter on the street, and so they ignored it, because there wasn't really a point of going out of their way to kill it. They walked over to the Trans Am, and Gerard unlocked it. Mikey got in the passenger seat, and Frank climbed into the back. Gerard sat down in the drivers seat and almost as soon as he'd closed the car door, he started driving. 

Frank desperately grabbed onto his seatbelt, and tried putting it on, but Mikey had turned around and stopped him. "There isn't a point. What if we run into some Walkers and need to make a quick escape?" Mikey said, and Frank realised he had a good point, and so let the seatbelt ping back. Frank sat back, and then stared out of the window as they drove along the streets. Every second that they drove, they were getting further and further away from his camp and his mom and Jamia, and that really scared Frank, because there was a possibility he'd never see them again. 

Frank only zoned out of his daydream when the car stopped in the middle of the street, and Gerard climbed out of the car. Frank went to unlock his car door, but Mikey shook his head. "Gee is checking for Walkers. We need a safe place to park and the mall is only like two minutes away from here."

Frank watched Gerard circling around the car as he looked for Biters in all directions. When he'd decided that this was a safe place to park, Gerard motioned for Frank and Mikey to get out. "It's a few minutes to walk to get to the mall," Gerard said, once Frank and Mikey were out of the car and standing next to him. "I say we check the food court first, and then we go to the drug stores, and gun stores, and then we come back and get out of here."

"I don't mean to ruin your plan," Frank says. "But I have no other clothes apart from what I'm wearing right now. Which means I'm gonna need some more." Frank said. 

"Okay, fine. Clothes stores first, then to the food court, and everywhere else. Got it?" Gerard said and Frank and Mikey nodded, before following Gerard. 

* * *

The walk to the mall was almost completely silent. Gerard killed a Biter as it walked towards them, there were a few Biters that acknowledged their presence, but one of the Biters didn't have both arms and the other only had one leg and so they weren't causing them any problems. 

When they got to the mall, Frank remembered coming here with a few of his friend back before everything happened. There was a smaller mall closer to where Frank lived, but this mall was a better place to go, because it had arcades and huge music stores that he loved. The little kid inside of Frank was getting super excited at the idea of being able to run around this mall without any security guards kicking him out, and taking all the CD's he wanted because he didn't actually have to pay. But then he remembered that there would be Walkers in there trying to kill him, and this was a get in-get out job, and he shouldn't really want to be in there longer than he had to. 

The fire exit and the main entrance was locked, and so they had to walk around to the other side of the mall, where there was a revolving door that hadn't been locked. Gerard went in first, then Mikey, with Frank bringing up the rear. There were no Biters, which felt a little creepy to Frank. Gerard obviously felt the same way, as he stopped Mikey and Frank from walking on. They all stayed quiet for a little while, until they heard a crash, and a few Biters coming towards them. 

Frank grabbed one of his new throwing knives out of his belt, and threw at at one of the Biters head. It went straight into the Biters skull, and then the Biter dropped to the floor, completely lifeless. 

Gerard swung his bat at another Biters head, and the Biter dropped to the floor, obviously a little winded. Gerard swung his bat up high, and then brought it down, smashing it onto the Biters head and completely smushing its brain and skull in the process. "Gross." Mikey said, and then stabbed the Biter in its head. Gerard killed the other Biter, and then, thankfully, there were no more left. 

As they walked past, Frank pulled his knife out of the Biters head, and then followed Gerard and Mikey further into the mall. 

Frank mapped out the entire mall in his head. There were 4 floors in the mall, excluding the basement. The fourth was the food court, and the basement was where the parking lot was. Then there were the three floors in between. The music store was on the first floor, where they were right now- but not that they needed to go there anyway. The drug store was on the third floor, and most of the clothes stores were on the second floor. 

"Wouldn't it be easier to go to the food court first?" Frank suggested.

"Why?" Gerard asked. 

"Because its on the top floor, and then we can make our way back down here." Frank said. Gerard stopped walking, and then turned to Frank. 

"How do you know where the food court is?" He asked. 

"I've been to this mall before. Like, before everything went to shit." 

"Oh right," Gerard said, and then continued to walk. "Okay, change of plan. We'll hit the food court first, then the drug and gun stores, then the clothes stores. And we can scope each store out quickly and then split up so we can cover more ground in less time, yeah?"

"Sounds good." Frank said, and Mikey nodded in agreement. 

They walked up the unmoving escalators, and then up the next few flights of them until they reached the food court. It looked a lot bigger than Frank remembered, but that was probably because there were no people in it, save for the few Biters wandering around. As soon as the Biters spotted them, they hobbled their way over to Gerard, Frank and Mikey, but of course, the Biters were too slow and didn't get to the three of them before they were climbing over the counters of the food places and starting to scope out the kitchens. 

It took them a while to root through all of the kitchens in all of the food places, because they checked every inch of every shelf, making sure they had cleared out absolutely everything before leaving. Good thing, though, was they found an entire box full of coffee, which obviously wouldn't all fit in their backpacks. They still needed room for ammo and medicine and of course Frank's clothes, so taking all of the coffee wouldn't be such a good idea. 

"We could try and find another backpack downstairs?" Frank said, and Gerard shook his head, though he did consider it for a second.

"One of us carrying an extra backpack will just slow us down. We'll come back for the rest in a few days."

Gerard put one tin of coffee in Frank's backpack, two in Mikey's and two in his. They also found a few tins of spaghetti and soup and beans and other tinned stuff that hadn't gone off. Gerard shoved as much as he could of that in his and Mikey's backpack, but only a little in Frank's so Frank would have room for clothes. They then found some candy that Mikey begged Gerard to take, and some water, which was helpful. After that, they left the food court, and made their way back downstairs to go to the drug and gun stores. 

None of the lights in the drug store were working, and there wasn't any widows in the store to let in any light. Thankfully, Gerard had remembered to bring a torch with him, but only having one torch would slow them down because they'd have to stick together. Gerard was holding the torch in his mouth as they scoped out the drug store, just in case any Biter appeared out of nowhere and he quickly needed to use his bat. They found a few painkillers, and bandages, and even a few boxes of vitamins, but other than that, the store had pretty much been wiped out. 

They left the store, and then went to the gun store which was on the other side of the mall. They hadn't run into any Biters on the way over there, which freaked Frank out a little. It wasn't that he wanted to see any, but it was weird that there were none. There was a window in the gun store, which Frank was grateful for, because that meant they could split up and find as much ammo as they could. 

Frank found a few boxes of bullets, and as he walked down the isle of the store, he saw a pack of nails that someone had obviously dropped there. He picked them up, and then had an idea. He jogged to where he knew Gerard was, and handed him that pack. "What is this?" Gerard asked, frowning at the pack, and then frowning at Frank. 

"They're nails. Like, I thought you could nail them into the end of your bat and that could kill the Biters quicker." Frank said, and then smiled a little at Gerard. Gerard nodded, and then grabbed his gun out of his pocket to use as a hammer, and started hammering the nails into the end of his bat. 

"Thanks Frank. That actually is good idea." Gerard said once one of the nails was in the bat.

Frank then went back to looking for ammo, and he wondered if Gerard ever actually smiled. Okay, he had only known Gerard for like a day, but Frank had smiled a few times during that day, and Gerard hadn't smiled once. 

There was a crash that came from the front of the store. Frank thought it was a Biter, and had his hand on his knife in an instant, but when he ran round, it was just Mikey knocking a gun onto the floor. "Jesus, Mikey. I thought something had attacked you!" Gerard said, throwing his bat onto the floor, and running up to his brother to make sure he wasn't hurt. 

"I'm fine," Mikey said, pushing Gerard away. "I was just trying to reach for the ammo on the shelf at the top but I couldn't reach it."

"That's when you stand on a chair, you idiot." Gerard said, and pulled the chair from the counter over, and then climbed up onto it. He started handing Mikey the boxes of ammo. Frank wasn't helping them, though. He'd wandered over to the entrance to the store, staring out at the twenty-something Biters coming towards them. 

"Guys-"

"Hang on, Frank." Gerard said, handing more boxes to Mikey. But Mikey wasn't taking the boxes from Gerard's hand, because he was staring at what Frank was staring at too. 

"Mikey, c'mon, we haven't got all day." Gerard said, shoving the boxes into Mikey's hands. Mikey pulled Gerard off of the chair, and then turned his brothers head towards the front of the store. 

"Oh shit." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> omg cliffhanger. sorry i had to end that there! that was 2000-something words and i didn't want it to get too long. So, find out next chapter what happens! i hope you like that chapter, and don't forget to leave comments/kudos because they're super awesome. thanks for reading!


	5. I Don't Believe In Luck, They Don't Believe In Us

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ahh, sorry i havent updated in a while. i was very busy at the weekend and haven't been able to go on my laptop to write much, so im updating now. i got all time low tickets for london next march! im super happy about that, and i cant wait! also i pre-ordered stomachaches :) hope you enjoy this chapter!

"Oh shit." Gerard muttered.

This wasn't what Frank had planned. He'd planned to maybe spend a few days with this guys, and then maybe find his mom and Jamia. Maybe, if he could, bring these guys back to the camp with him. He'd planned, before this, to get married to Jamia, of course when they got older, and just spend the rest of his life at the camp. He wasn't going to die like this. He still had to get back to his family. And he didn't want Gerard and Mikey to die either.

Gerard and Mikey had started loading their guns, and were getting ready to aim them at the oncoming Biters. "No guns," Frank said, turning back to Gerard and Mikey. "It'll attract more Biters. Then we'll never get out." 

Gerard nodded, lowering his gun, and grabbing his bat from the floor. But Mikey wouldn't put his gun down. "It'll be quicker this way. Then we can just get the fuck out of here."

"Mikey, do you want to have a chance of surviving or face certain death?" 

"I just want to get  _out._ " Mikey spat, making Gerard jump back a little. 

Frank knew the only way they'd have a chance to get out was if Mikey just put the gun down. Snatching the gun out of Mikey's hands wouldn't work that well- he might accidentally fire, attracting more Biters. Just telling him to wouldn't work either, because they'd obviously already tried that.

"Mikey, listen to me," Frank said, and Mikey looked away from the Biters for a few seconds. "You have your knives. Use them."

"They won't be quick enough." Mikey argued. 

"If you're quick enough, then they will be."

"I won't be quick enough." Mikey started to aim at the Biters, but Frank could see how much Mikey was shaking. Frank stepped closer to Mikey, and the Biters stepped even closer to them. 

"Mikey, you'll be quick enough. And if you're not, your brother and I will protect y-"

"I don't need protecting." Mikey said, and then finally-  _thankfully_ \- threw the gun down on the floor. But Frank's mind was a little too occupied to even consider celebrating. The Biters were seconds away, and Gerard was the only one guarding them at that moment. Frank's hand went straight to his belt and he grabbed to of his knives, and aimed them at the oncoming Biters, before throwing them towards the herd. 

One went down, but the rest just kept on coming. Gerard swung his bat into one of the Biter's heads, and as soon as he'd done that, it dropped to the floor, assumingly dead for the last time. Frank turned round to look at Mikey, but he wasn't there- or anywhere that Frank could see, for that matter. Frank decided not to say anything to Gerard, and just continued fighting the Biters that threatened them. 

Gerard took out a few, but by now Frank was running out of his knives. He could risk pulling them out of the Biters heads, but that would probably only end up with him getting bitten instead, and he didn't want that happening. After he threw his last knife, he pulled his actual knife out of his belt, and started stabbing the Biters. Mikey finally came up beside Frank, and brought his knife down into one of the Biters heads. It went down straight away, and Mikey pulled the knife out, before moving onto the next Biter. "Where the fuck were you, Mikey?" Frank asked.

"If you weren't gonna let me use my gun, then I had to get my knife." Mikey replied, and then took out another Biter. It seemed like there were hundreds of them, when in reality there were only twenty or so. Even so, it took them a while to kill them all. Frank almost got bit, after pushing his knife into a Biters head, but obviously not reaching the brain in the first blow. Though it dropped to the floor in front of Frank, after a few minutes it reanimated and grabbed Frank's leg, bringing him down to the floor as well. 

"Fucking-" Frank shouted, attempting to kick the Biter away. It gnashed its teeth, its hold tightening, but never quite getting close enough to Frank to bite him. Frank's knife was still in his hand, but he couldn't reach down far enough to smash it into the Biter's head. 

Before he even knew what was happening, he felt blood fly onto his face. He gagged, the smell of rotting corpse wafting into the air around him. He looked up, expecting to see Mikey, for some reason, but instead he saw a proud looking (but still not smiling) Gerard, twisting his bat around in his hand preparing to bring it down onto another of the Biters heads. 

"Thanks." Frank said to Gerard, standing up and aiming his knife at another Biter. Gerard didn't reply because he was too busy concentrating on not being killed, but Frank hardly noticed when he saw that there were only a few Biters left, but these few were the stragglers- the ones with missing limbs and no teeth that would have to try hard to cause Gerard, Mikey and Frank any harm or trouble. 

Frank grabbed all of his knives out of the Biters heads, and then turned back to Mikey and Gerard, who still looked a little shellshocked from what had just happened. 

"Let's go." Gerard said, when he noticed Frank was looking at him. He grabbed his backpack, and Mikey and Frank picked up their own, and followed Gerard out of the store, keeping an eye on the almost harmless Biters. They jogged over to the non-moving escalators and went down them, so they were on the second floor. The Biters hadn't followed them- probably finding something else more interesting that made a noise or moved that was easier to get to. 

Mikey looked pretty shaken up, Frank noticed. He looked pale, and his breathing was a little ragged. Frank thought he should ask Mikey if he was okay, but before he got the chance to, Gerard made Mikey sit down on one of the seats in the middle of the Mall, and wait until he'd calmed down. Frank said nothing during the few minutes Mikey needed to calm down. Instead he just kept on lookout for any Biters. There were none that he could see, but that didn't mean there weren't any around. "Let's keep on moving." Gerard said, and Frank nodded, and followed behind Mikey and Gerard as they continued walking. 

They found a clothes store that Frank remembered shopping in when he was younger. They staked it out, finding no Biters, and then Gerard and Mikey waited at the entrance, letting Frank wander around finding some suitable clothes to take back. Once he was done, he went back to brothers, announcing that they could go back to the car now. 

"No, theres somewhere I want to go to first." Gerard said. They walked back over to where the escalators were, and walked down them to the next floor. Frank saw the music store- he hadn't been there in ages, and wondered if it looked any different to the way he remembered it was- and was surprised when Gerard led him and Mikey over there. 

"Gerard, is there even a point of going here?" Mikey asked when the walked into the music store. No, it hadn't changed, apart from the fact that there was dust _everywhere_ , and bullet shells littered on the floor. 

"Yes. this was the only job I actually enjoyed." Gerard said- still not smiling- as he looking through the dust covered CD's. 

"You worked here?"

"Yeah. Only for a little while. Up until everything...you know." Gerard sighed, and picked up a CD. He dusted it off, and Frank saw that it was a Maiden CD. "If it was still safe to listen to music, I would take this." Gerard said, assumingly to Mikey. 

Frank wandered off, looking around the store himself. He couldn't remember seeing Gerard here. But then again, he'd only be 13 and younger when he'd come here, and so hadn't really been paying attention to anything else other than the music and his friends. He looked over at Gerard, trying to see if he recognised him, but he saw nothing other than Gerard, the guy he'd only known for a day and seemed to never smile. 

"Can we just leave now?" Mikey asked, and Gerard nodded, and then called Frank over from the other side of the store. It was nice to have spent some time in the music store, but as usual, all good things must come to an end and they needed to leave sooner rather than later. 

They left the store, their backpacks full with ammo, food and clothes (and of course coffee), and made their way out of the Mall, and back to the Trans Am that was parked in the in the middle of the street. There were no Biters around, which was helpful. Gerard pulled the keys out of his pocket, and unlocked the car, before handing his backpack and bat to Frank to keep next to him in the back seat. Mikey did the same, and then Frank climbed in next to the three backpacks. Gerard started the car after Mikey had sat down in the front seat. 

The drive back to the house they were in in under 10 minutes. Frank counted each second as they drove back, and he got to about 550 seconds when the car stopped outside the house. Bob was sitting out front, watching them as they pulled up. As soon as the three of them got out of the car, Bob walked over to them, taking Gerard and Mikey's backpacks for them. "How was it?" He asked Gerard. 

"It was fine. No disturbances. Everything was easy to get." Gerard lied. 

"What about-" Frank started, confused as to why Gerard had lied to Bob. 

"Frank found some nails for me," Gerard said. "Upgraded my bat. Easier to kill the Walkers now." Gerard showed his bat to Bob, who nodded, and then went back into the house so he could tell Ray to come back in. Mikey followed Bob in, leaving Gerard and Frank out front on their own. 

"Why did you lie to him?" Frank asked Gerard. 

"He didn't need to know."

"No, Gerard, there's something more than that, I can tell."

"There isn't anything else you need to know."

"Gerard-"

"We all lost someone, Frank," Gerard cut Frank off. "If they found out that they could have lost Mikey and I today, they'd just baby us for a long time, and there isn't time to be babied anymore."

"What happened with Mikey earlier?" Frank pushed on. "Why was he panicking so much?"

"We all lost someone, Frank," Gerard repeated. "Sometimes people can be reminded of something they didn't want to remember. Now, if you will excuse me..." Gerard walked into the house in front of Frank. Frank stared after him, and then a few seconds later, after feeling ultimately confused and a little unneeded, followed him inside. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you enjoyed that chapter. don't forget to leave kudos/comments! thanks


	6. Say Goodbye To The Good Times

Frank sat up in bed, his heart hammering in his chest, threatening to kill him if it started to beat any faster. He could feel the back of his neck and his forehead dripping with sweat, and his breathing was ragged and just wouldn't become even again. He looked around the room he was in- he could see Mikey's body rising and falling which meant he was probably sleeping. He looked around to see if Gerard was in his bed, and when he wasn't, Frank's heartbeat instantly sped up. 

But then he realised that Gerard was probably downstairs in the kitchen, drinking coffee, as usual. Frank flopped back down in bed, and stared up at the ceiling. His mind wandered to his camp. He wondered if anyone had gone back, or even if anyone, other than him, had survived. He remembered Jamia, the way she'd look so happy, and yet so confused and he tried to teach her how to play guitar. Sometimes he thanked God for whatever had happened to the world, because otherwise, he would have never met Jamia. Then again, he absolutely despised it. If this hadn't happened, he would have seen his friends, and his father again, and he wouldn't be in this house with these four guys he'd never met in his life before. And if the camp hadn't have been overrun, he would have still been with Jamia and his mom, where he belonged.

He remembered what his nightmare had been about, and why he woke up so scared. He'd dreamt of having to kill Jamia and his mom. At first, he'd had to kill them as humans- they'd been bitten, and Frank hadn't been able to save them. But the moment he had killed them, they'd turned, and he'd needed to put them down, but he just didn't have the heart to, and let them kill him. And then he'd woken up. 

Frank didn't know how long he'd been staring at the ceiling, and when he realised that, he didn't actually know how long he'd been with this new group. He knew he'd gotten here not long after Christmas- maybe early January. It snowed almost all the time whilst he'd been here and it seemed to just stay that way- after all, they were in New Jersey. Thankfully, the house still had heating, so it was warm all of the time and Frank hadn't gotten a cold. He guessed it was maybe early February now, from the way the snow was just starting to melt a little quicker than usual, even though it would just be covered by another layer in a matter of hours. 

Frank hadn't been made to go on runs in the past month, though. He'd told Mikey about his bad immune system, and Mikey had told Gerard, and Gerard, obviously not wanting anyone to die of a cold, told Frank he didn't have to go on any runs until the warmer months when he wasn't likely to get a cold. Frank, always being one to persevere, went on a few runs, and thankfully, didn't catch a cold. Everyone was worried when he started sneezing a lot one day, but the day after, Frank went back to normal, and didn't sneeze at all.

Frank snapped out of his daydream when the bedroom door opened, and Gerard walked in, holding a cup of coffee and a very dusty comic book. Frank pretended to be asleep, but Gerard came and sat down on the floor next to Frank's bed. "I know you're awake," Gerard said, making Frank sigh. He sat up, and rubbed his eyes, and then looked down at Gerard, who was holding out the cup of coffee for Frank. "Drink it." 

Frank took the coffee, a little confused as to why Gerard hadn't made a coffee for himself, but whatever, he wasn't going to force Gerard to drink the coffee if he'd made it for him anyway. Frank took the coffee, and sipped at it, almost burning his lips when he did. Gerard opened the comic up, and started to read it. Frank watched him, whilst sipping the coffee, slightly amused as to why Gerard, of all people, was reading a comic. 

"The reason I'm reading this is because I wanted to be a comic book artist when I was younger," Gerard answered. "I still want to be. But that's not gonna happen."

"Woah wait can you read minds?" Frank asked. Gerard shook his head. 

"I can just tell that you were confused as to why I was reading a comic book."

"Oh. Well, yeah. I mean, I just sort of thought Mikey was the one who was always read comic books."

"Yeah," Gerard looked over at his brother who was now snoring lightly. "But he doesn't like them as much as me, though."

"How come I haven't seen you reading comics before then?" 

"Because there aren't many comics around anymore, and when I find any, I give them to Mikey."

"Then what about the one you have there then?"

"Mikey isn't awake yet. I'll give it to him later."

Frank nods, and then goes back to drinking his coffee whilst Gerard flips through the comic book. Frank looks at Gerard's watch, and it says that it's only 5:00 a.m. He sighs, and then puts the cup down on the floor next to his bed, and lays back down so he can stare at the ceiling again. 

Frank hadn't realised that he'd drifted back to sleep until Gerard pokes his side and tells him to wake up and come help with breakfast. Frank yawns, and then nods in agreement, and lets Gerard pull him out of bed. Mikey is still asleep, and Frank assumes that Bob and Ray are probably still asleep too if Gerard wants him to help with breakfast. They go downstairs, and into the kitchen. Gerard has out a few cans of beans, and has a pot on the stove. He pours the beans into the pot, and then throws them into the bag they use as a makeshift bin in the corner of the room. Gerard puts Frank on the bean-stirring duty whilst he makes fives coffees. They work in silence, until they hear a creaking noise, which they assume is probably Mikey coming downstairs. 

But the creaking just continues for a few minutes. "Uhm, Gerard-"

"Hold on." Gerard says, and then he walks out of the kitchen. Frank guesses that the beans are probably done, and so pours them into five bowls, and gets out the plastic spoons they keep in the cupboard. Gerard walks back in barely a minute later. Frank looks at him expectantly, and Gerard shakes his head. "Walkers. They've basically barricaded us in. We're either gonna have to get rid of them now or leave soon."

"Well then lets get rid of them!" Frank says, and goes to get his knives with are in his backpack on the table. "Lets just go get them now and we won't have to wake Mikey, Bob and Ray up."

"No, Frank. There's- just, go look for yourself."

Frank starts to worry, because he can tell that Gerard seems on edge. And when Gerard is on edge, it usually means something bad is happening. He walks past Gerard to get out of the kitchen. The creaking is getting louder, the closer he walks to the door. He turns in the living room, and because they curtains aren't closed, he sees why Gerard is so nervous. 

There are Biters completely covering the window, clawing at the glass to try and get into the house. Frank turns back to go to the kitchen, but Gerard is standing next to him anyway. "We can't clear them all. We're gonna have to try and find a way out to the car because there is no way we can get rid of them all on our own. We probably wouldn't be able to get rid of them all, even if there was the five of us."

"Well, then. I suppose we're gonna have to say goodbye to this house?" Frank asks, and Gerard nods.

"What the fuck is going on?"

Gerard and Frank look around to Mikey who is standing by the door. He still looks absolutely knackered, but he looks terrified at the same time. 

"Why- what is-" Mikey stepped further into the room, but Gerard stepped in front of him.

"Go and wake Bob and Ray. We need to leave," Gerard said.

"But-"

" _Now_." 

Mikey opened his mouth to say something again, but then he nodded, and turned around, and ran back upstairs. Gerard turned back to Frank. "Let's get everything because when they're all awake, we're gonna have to leave." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ah, another cliffhanger. i didn't know what to do for this chapter but then i sort of thought lets push the story on a bit and get to more interesting stuff (instead of them just doing nothing for like 3 chapters haha). anyway, i hope you enjoyed, and i will probably have the next part up later today/tonight :)


	7. So Just Save Yourself And I'll Hold Them Back Tonight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> chapter 7 already! i hope everyone is enjoying this story because i am enjoying writing it. thank you for all your comments because i love receiving them (they have all made me smile). 
> 
> also, i just want to clear things up a little- because im writing this story from mainly franks pov but in 3rd person, he still refers to the 'walkers' as biters. so if one moment gerard/mikey/ray/bob are saying 'walkers', and then it says biters somewhere else, thats just because its from franks pov and that's what he calls them. did that make sense? i hope it did, and hopefully that cleared it up if anyone was confused (though nobody was probably confused haha)

Frank's heart was hammering in his chest as he gathered all of their things with the help of Gerard, placing it all on the table as they listened to the hurried footsteps of Bob, Ray and Mikey upstairs, and the scratching on the door from the Biters. 

"Go upstairs, get changed, and tell the others to hurry up." Gerard said, once they had almost everything gathered up. 

"What about everything else?" Frank asked, and Gerard shook his head. 

"Just go. I'll be okay for the moment. The Biters aren't gonna get in for at least another fifteen minutes." Frank nodded at Gerard, who continued to shove everything else into the backpacks. Frank jogged out of the kitchen but stopped at the front door. He could hear the groans and desperate claws from the Biters outside, and he suddenly imagined getting ripped to shreds by them, or even worse- watching his friends being ripped to shreds by them. The thought motivated him to hurry up, and so he ran as quickly as he could upstairs, and firstly went into Bob and Ray's room. They were both dressed, and were packing their guns and ammo into a bag. 

"You guys good?" Frank asked, and they both nodded. "Gerard needs help downstairs, so..."

"On it." Ray nodded at Frank, and then Frank nodded back at him, before running into the room he shared with Mikey and Gerard. Mikey had already changed out of his pyjamas and into his normal clothes, but he was just sitting on his bed, staring at the wall. 

"Mikey?" Frank frowned at Mikey, who hadn't even looked up when he'd walked in. "Mikey- dude, are you okay?" Frank asked. Mikey looked up at him slowly, his face completely pale. He shook his head, and then looked down at his shoes. Frank noticed that Mikey was wringing his hands and his breathing wasn't even at all. Frank sat down next to Mikey, and then put his hand on his shoulder. 

"What's wrong?" Mikey shook his head again at Frank's question, and squeezed his hands into fists before wringing them again. "C'mon, Mikey, we haven't got long. We need to get out of here."

"No." Mikey muttered, and Frank's eyes widened. 

"No? What do you mean?" 

"I meant what I said," Mikey said through gritted teeth. He turned his head to look at Frank, his eyes completely filled with tears. "I'm not leaving here."

"But...But if you don't leave, you'll-"

"Get infected? Or die, if I'm lucky," Mikey laughed half-heartedly, and then wiped his eyes with his t-shirt. "I don't wanna be around when you or Bob and Ray get bitten. And I sure as hell don't wanna be around when Gerard gets bitten. I want to die now so I don't have to go through it. Not again..."

"We're not gonna die, Mikey. Gerard- you know Gerard. He will be the last one of us today. He's not gonna go that easy."

"No, but what if he does, huh?" Mikey pushed on. Frank could hear Bob, Ray and Gerard talking downstairs, and he knew that they didn't have enough time left. "What if it's my fault that he dies?"

"Mikey, we only have a few minutes left-"

"Good! You get changed, and leave me here. At least leave me a gun so I can end it if I need to, though." Mikey rubbed his eyes, and then sat back on the bed, going back to staring at the wall. 

"What about Gerard now? How do you think he's gonna feel if he just lets his little brother die?" 

Mikey's eyes wander back to Frank's face, and then down into his lap. Frank knows he's just made Mikey feel like a pile of shit, but they need to leave now or they'll never get out. "I-I don't know." Mikey answers, and they both jump a little when Gerard walks into the room. 

"Frank, what the fuck are you still doing in your pyjamas. We need to leave in a minute. The Walkers are starting to get through the front door. We've already had to kill two." 

The threat of Biters in the house suddenly spurs Mikey into action. He jumps off of the bed, runs over to Gerard, and pulls his brother into a hug. Gerard makes an 'oomph' noise, but hugs Mikey back all the same. Frank smiles to himself, and then barely a second later, Gerard and Mikey have gone downstairs. Frank is thankful that in some way, he made Mikey change his mind about staying here to die. 

 _Die._ The word sends chills down Frank's spine. He could die any day now. Or even any hour, or an minute, or even any second. He's not planning on letting that happen anytime soon, though. 

* * *

 

A minute later, and everyone is downstairs, grabbing their weapons and bags and heading out the backdoor. Mikey is still really on edge- Frank had noticed that his face was blotchy from where he'd been crying a few minutes before. Gerard seems pretty upset too because he'd seen Mikey cry, and from what Frank had seen, the two brothers were almost inseparable, and whatever affected one of them, affected the other. 

There are no Biters in the yard- thankfully, and so the walk through the broken down fence halfway down was a breeze. Gerard, as usual, takes up the front, with Ray close behind him. Being the biggest concern of the group right now, Mikey is in the middle, with Frank close next to him, almost as support, and then Bob is bringing up the rear. Frank's hands are close to his knives every second they walk along. There are no Biters on the street they're on, but Frank guesses that they're probably all crowded around the front of the house. 

And his guess becomes correct as they walk around to the front. There are at least 50 Biters, maybe more, outside the house. Most of them are piled up against the door and window, and it seems that they've just broken through the barricades that they'd made a few days back, as the crowd seems to be thinning out a little. Gerard stops them all with a wave of his hand, and they crouch down behind a snow-covered car parked on a driveway. 

"Theres a few wandering around the car," Gerard whispers. "Frank, you and I are gonna take them out as quietly as possible, okay? And then we're gonna drive it round here and you guys are gonna jump in and we can leave." 

Frank nods, but Mikey shakes his head. "No, Gerard, let me go instead of you, please." 

"No. Mikey. Stay with Bob and Ray." Gerard squeezes his brothers shoulder, and then takes his backpack off, and hands it to Ray. Frank follows suit, taking his backpack off and handing it to Bob. 

"You ready?" Gerard asks, and Frank nods. Of course he isn't. 

They move as quietly as they possibly can- the soft crunch of snow under their boots isn't too good for being quiet, but theres nothing they can do about it, and hopefully the Biters won't really notice. The first Biter that notices them, however, is when they're only one house away from the car. It comes out of nowhere, and launches itself at Gerard, but Frank sees it just before it is able to sink its nails into Gerard and infect him. With a swift stab to the head to kill it, Gerard lowers the Biter onto the floor after getting a hold of it, so it doesn't attract the attention of anymore Biters. 

A lot of the Biters that were around the car seem to be more interested in the house now, however. There are only a dozen or so wandering around the car, which makes this mission just a little more easier than it originally was. All of the Biters that are on the porch of the house are facing towards the house, so they can't see the car, and won't see Gerard and Frank, unless any noise is made. Frank throws all six of his throwing knives from where he and Gerard are crouched, hidden from the Biters at the house. The knives hit all of the Biters exactly where they were aimed- in the head- but when they slump to the floor, it grabs the attention of a few other Biters trying to get into the house. They hobble over to the car, and start sniffing around there. 

"Shit." Frank mutters under his breath, but Gerard shushes him. 

"I have a plan," Gerard says, and then stands up. He starts waving his hands (and his bat in the air.) "You ugly motherfuckers! Hey! Look!" He shouts, and most of the Biters, and all of the ones wandering around the car, look up at him.

"What are you doing?!" Frank whispers, and Gerard crouches down quickly again. 

"Go get the car. Drive it over to the others. Get them in and drive around the corner. I'll meet you there in five minutes. If I'm not there, just leave, okay? Keep my brother safe. Even if that means not waiting five minutes for me." Gerard says, handing the car keys to Frank, and his watch. He then stands up again, and starts shouting to the Biters. 

"You're crazy! This is never gonna work!" Frank says, but shoves the keys and watch in his pocket, and watches as all of the Biters start to come over to them. 

"But its just so crazy that it  _will_ work." Gerard says, and then nudges Frank, and points towards the car. "Hurry!" He says, and Frank almost trips over as he starts to run towards the car. 

 _First things first is to get all of my knives_ , Frank thinks. He grabs his knives out of the dead Biters' head as quick as he can, shoving them all into his belt, and hoping that he'll remember to clean them off later. There is one Biter still standing by the bar, and so he kicks it over, and shoves his knife into the back of its head. Frank looks up, to see how Gerard is doing, and his heart drops when he can't see him, because there is just a huge crowd of Biters. But then one of the Biters' heads comes flying off, and Frank realises that Gerard is still okay. And he will be okay. If Frank just hurries up. 

Frank scrambles for the keys in his pocket, and then manages to unlock the car in a matter of seconds. He climbs into the car, closing the car door after him, and then shoving the key into the ignition. He grabs the steering wheel, pushes his foot down onto the accelerator pedal, and the car zooms off at an alarming speed. He was so used to driving huge cars that seated 7 or so people, that this car felt almost light as he drove it the little way down the street to where they'd left Mikey, Ray and Bob.

Mikey is the first in the car, diving into the backseat, closely followed by Bob and Ray and the backpacks. As soon as the car door is closed, Frank pushes his foot down again, and they're zooming off, further down the street.

"Where the fuck is my brother?!" Mikey shouts at Frank, as Frank turns round the corner he guessed that Gerard wanted him to wait at. There are no Biters here, but that doesn't mean there won't be in a minute. And Frank was given strict orders to keep Mikey safe, no matter what. Frank stops the car, and then turns back to look at Mikey, Ray and Bob. 

Ray and Bob look pretty calm for people who could technically still die at any minute. Mikey looks angry. His face his now bright red, and not pale like it was a few minutes before. He looks ready to punch Frank, if he doesn't answer the question. 

"He was keeping the Biters off of my ass so we could get out of here." 

"Fucking hell!" Mikey groans, and flops back in his seat. "He better fucking come back, I swear to God..."

"He told me to wait five minutes," Frank says, turning back around his seat and then staring out the window. "But five minutes, and then we leave. His strict orders."

"No! We're waiting until he gets here!" Mikey argues.

"And he will be here in five minutes, Mikes," Ray says, cutting in and trying to calm Mikey down. "You know you're brother. He's a fighter. He'll be here."

Mikey doesn't reply, but he sighs loudly. Frank watches in the side mirror as it starts to snow again, but only slowly this time. He pulls the watch out of his pocket, and starts to count five minutes. It gets to 8:47 a.m., which means Gerard's five minutes are up. He looks out of the side mirror one last time, and then just as he goes to start the car up again, he notices someone running towards the car. 

"Oh thank fuck," He mutters under his breath, as he sees the familiar mop of messy brown hair, and dark green jacket, and wooden bat. Frank leans over and unlocks the other car door, and then starts up the engine. A snow-dusted Gerard flops down in the front seat, and he quickly closes the car door, and then Frank starts up the car. As soon as he's driving, everyone, especially Mikey, expresses how worried they were about Gerard. 

"I was fine," Gerard says. "I always am."

Gerard looks at Frank, and Frank feels a smile stretch across his face. Frank almost crashes into another car parked at the side of the street, because he was so taken by surprise.

For the first time in the month that Frank had known Gerard, Gerard actually smiled back. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ahh there was chapter 7. ive been awake since 1 a.m. writing this and it is now 3 a.m. and im really tired. but it was worth it because i like the way this chapter turned out. it was pretty long, too! about 2300 words. don't forget to leave kudos, and comment because thats always awesome (and they always make me smile). thanks for reading!!! <3


	8. But The Past Ain't Through With You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> has everyone seen the final album cover for hesitant alien? its really awesome (gerard is so gorgeous aha). also only eight days until stomachaches which im super stoked about!!! but yeah, anyway, here is chapter 8. i hope everyone is enjoying the story so far! ✿o‿o✿ (also yay for quick updates)

Frank's hands ached from driving for so long, but there was no way he could stop. Gerard, Ray and Bob were all asleep, and he knew that Mikey didn't know how to drive. Gerard, before falling asleep, told Frank to just keep on driving until it was dark, and then, in the morning, they'd find somewhere to stay. Frank hoped that Gerard would stay awake until it got dark, but because he didn't Frank just kept on driving. He had no idea where he was going, and either did Mikey, but there was really no point in stopping. 

When the sun started to set, and Frank couldn't feel his hands anymore, Mikey told him to pull over onto the side of the freeway. "I have to pee." Mikey announced, before unlocking the car door and getting out. He disappeared into the fading light, and Frank was almost tempted to run after him incase a Biter creeped up on him was he wasn't concentrating. Frank stopped the car completely, and then started wringing his hands to try and get the blood flowing back into them. He heard Bob and Ray stirring in the back of the car, but when neither of them said anything, he guessed that they weren't ready to actually wake up yet. Frank turned around his seat and grabbed one of the backpacks which were stuck under Ray and Bob's feet. 

He grabbed a can of beans and a two spoons, and then cracked the can of beans open. He dug his spoon into the beans and then shoved the spoon into his mouth. His stomach gurgled as he ate the beans, and as he was so concentrated on eating the beans, he jumped when Mikey opened the car door. He flopped back down in his seat, and then took the spoon and can that Frank offered him. 

"They're still not awake?" Mikey whispered after a spoonful of beans. Frank shook his head, and then looked at Mikey's sleeping brother next to him. He looked peaceful when he slept, which was not how Frank had imagined he'd look. Gerard was always pretty tense when he was awake, and Frank assumed that he'd probably be even more tense when he slept. 

"I suppose that's good though," Mikey muttered, his mouth full of beans. "Then they can keep watch while we sleep."

"Yeah." Frank agreed, and then took the can back from Mikey. They continued to eat in silence, until they'd finished the can of beans. Mikey rolled down the window and dropped it down onto the floor, and Frank winced when it made a loud clattering noise. 

"Well done Mikey, don't be any more obvious to the Biters, then." Frank said, and Mikey uttered an apology, before rolling the window back up. Frank laid back in his, and stared out the window at the few cars that had been abandoned in the middle of the freeway. He wondered if the owners of the cars were around here somewhere, and had a camp that they could stay at (and more food, because their food wouldn't last for long), but then he remembered that the world had gone to shit about four years ago now, and so it was highly unlikely that the owners were still around here.

Frank had no idea how long he'd been staring out the window, but when he turned back to talk to Mikey again, Mikey's head was resting on the window and he was snoring lightly. "Alright, I'll be on look out, then." Frank whispered to himself. His knives were still in his belt, but he didn't have his gun, as he'd put it in his backpack. He pulled it out, and made sure it was loaded, before putting it onto safety and then resting it on his thigh. 

* * *

 

The light had almost completely faded when Gerard shuffled in his seat, and then yawned, signalling his consciousness to Frank. Frank turned his head for a second to look at Gerard, who was now rubbing his eyes, but he then looked back at the road in front of him, incase any Biters showed up. 

"How long was I asleep for?" Gerard asked Frank. 

"Few hours. Six or seven, tops."

"Shit, sorry," Gerard muttered. "I haven't slept that long in years."

"It's okay. Mikey and I kept watch for a while." Frank yawned at that point, but when Gerard said he could take over watch if Frank wanted to sleep, Frank shook his head and batted Gerard's hands away from his gun.

"Then at least let me help you." Gerard offered, and Frank shrugged. Gerard picked up his bat from under his feet, and then got out of the car. 

"Where are you going?" Frank asked, but Gerard didn't reply to him. He cast one quick look back at Mikey, Ray and Bob, who were still fast asleep, and then followed Gerard out of the car. 

He hadn't gone far- he was leaning on the car, twirling his bat around his hands. "It's easier to be outside of the car, incase of a Walker attack," Gerard said when Frank stopped next to him. "Because if you're in the car, you have to get out and by that time, they've already bitten or scratched you. 

"But if you're in the car, can't you just drive off?" Frank asked, and Gerard shook his head. 

"Running them over just means them getting trapped under the car. Then you really can't get away."

"How do you know all of this? Have you ran over Biters before?" Frank asked. 

Gerard sighed, and then looked up at the sky. Frank swore he could see tears forming in Gerard's eyes- but then again, it could just be the chill in the air making Gerard's eyes water. "Yeah," Gerard answered. 

"When?"

"You ask a lot of questions Frank," Gerard commented- Frank didn't know whether to be offended, or take it as a compliment. "About two years ago."

"Why?"

"Why? Because there was no other way out of the situation I was in." Gerard said. A small chuckle rose up in his throat, and it took Frank by surprise, because first of all, he'd never heard Gerard laugh, and secondly, it wasn't a happy laugh. Gerard seemed upset by the memory, which confused Frank. 

"Did you know the Biters you ran over?" Frank pushed on, and Gerard stilled completely. Frank thought he might have pushed Gerard too far, but then Gerard took a deep breath, and nodded. "Who were they?"

Gerard didn't reply for a few moments. He looked back around at the car- Mikey, Ray and Bob were all still asleep, and there were no Biters around. When Gerard turned back around, Frank was sure that there were tears in his eyes, but not a single tear fell as he spoke. "Mikey's girlfriend. And all of our friends and their families, and-" Gerard's voice failed, and Frank felt awful for practically making Gerard telling him.

"And our parents. Mikey, Ray, Bob and I, we'd been out on a run, on our own- there were 20 of us at this camp, right, so four or five of us usually went out. And we all got stuck over night, because we didn't want to be driving when it was dark. And when we got back in the morning, the camp was like a ghost town. I assumed everyone was still asleep, and then Mikey told me he'd seen a Walker, and I'd told him to stop being stupid, but then Bob and Ray said they saw it too, and before knew it, at least 30 Walkers were on top of us, and then I saw our friends, but they were dead- and then Mikey saw his girlfriend, and he started sobbing and I-I saw my parents and I just drove into them, because I needed to get out- I needed to get _us_ out- and we almost got stuck but somehow we didn't and I just drove and drove until we found a house and stayed there for a while. And then we moved on every few weeks or months, until we found the last house."

Frank didn't know what to say- he'd thought that Gerard was an emotional brick, and had probably never cried in his life, but now, seeing him on the verge of tears, and talking about his parents and friends...Frank's mind changed completely. 

Frank didn't really know what to do at that moment- he knew that if he spoke, he'd say something stupid. But whenever Jamia had cried back at camp, and he didn't know how to react to her tears, he'd hold her hand and somehow that would calm her down. It was an awful idea and Frank knew it, because Gerard, for one thing, wasn't a girl, but most of all, he wasn't Jamia, but he grabbed Gerard's hand, and squeezed it. Gerard flinched at first, and Frank knew he'd made the wrong decision, but then he turned his attention completely to his hand in Frank's, and Frank swore he saw Gerard smile a little.

"I hate to admit it, but it was scary. I've never been more scared." Gerard said, and then he looked away from his and Frank's hands and back into the darkness. 

"You lost all of your family, you had a right to be scared." Frank said.

"Not all of my family," Gerard looked back at his and Frank's hands. "I still have Ray, who was, my best friend before everything, and still is. I still have Bob- he's Mikey's best friend, and was before everything, as well. And I still have Mikey, and I thank God for him every single day. I don't know what I'd do without him. And now you. You're part of my family now."

Frank felt his cheeks heat up a little, despite the cold air around him. He was lucky that it was dark, and thankfully the light coming from inside the car was probably not enough for Gerard to see the colour of his cheeks. He was about to reply with something stupid, like 'only until I die or I find my mom and girlfriend', but Ray gets out of the car before he can talk to Gerard. Frank takes his hand away from Gerard's when Ray steps in front of them. "You go and get some sleep, Frank, you must be knackered." Ray says.

"Okay. Thanks, Ray." Frank smiles, and then, without looking back at Gerard, he walks around the car and climbs in. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> finally some frerard!!! well, there was frerard stuff before, but not in a romantic way. not that frank intended for the hand holding to be in anyway romantic (though i intended it to be aha (; ). but yes, this will be the start of frerard-y things happening, but then more dramatic shit (no more spoilers tho). please leave comments and tell me what you love/hate about the story. i reply to most comments (the ones i don't reply to i probably haven't seen), and also if you are feeling extra kind then leave kudos! thank you so much for reading <3


	9. I'm Trying To Let You Know How Much You Mean

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> six days until stomachaches yay. also no shows is amazing, fyi. 
> 
> here's chapter 9.

Frank felt someone nudging his arm as he woke up. He was curled up in the drivers seat, but he never remembered falling asleep. It was bright outside now, so he'd probably been asleep for a good few hours. He rubbed his eyes to clear them a little, and then looked around to see who had woken him up. It was Mikey, who looked just as tired as Frank felt. "Move over. Gee will be back in a minute." Mikey said, and then relaxed back on his seat in the back of the car. 

"Where did he go? Where are Bob and Ray?" Frank asked, and climbed over onto the passenger side.

"They're with him. Seeing if they can find anything worth looting, I guess." Mikey yawned after he answered, and then closed his eyes. Frank copied him- yawning and closing his eyes- but he was only relaxed for a few minutes, as the car doors opened. Ray and Bob got in the back next to Mikey, and Gerard climbed into the drivers seat. 

"Find anything?" Mikey asked.

"Some water." Bob said.

"Cool, can I have some?" Mikey asked, and Bob nodded. He reached into his backpack, and handed Mikey the bottle of water. Mikey looked like he was going to puke- the bottle itself was covered in dirt, but the water had something growing inside it. Mikey gagged, and threw the bottle back at Bob. "Did you only bring that back to trick me?" 

Bob nodded. "It's cool, though, don't you think?" Bob held the bottle close to his face, and watched as whatever the live thing inside of it was floated around. 

"No it's not cool. At all. I'm really thirsty." Mikey pouted, and Bob laughed at him, and tried to piss him off even more by shoving the bottle in Mikey's face. Mikey pushed him, and the bottle away, but then Ray got squashed into the car door, and that made him pissed off too. Ray pushed Bob back, and Bob dropped the bottle into Mikey's lap. Mikey gagged again, and shoved the bottle away from him, but somehow it rolled over to Ray, and Ray gagged too, and then Bob started laughing, and-

"Stop messing around!" Gerard shouted, making everyone (but mostly Frank) wince. "Mikey, theres water in my bag. Theres not loads so don't drink it all. And Bob, just get rid of that fucking bottle." 

Mikey grabbed for Gerard's bag, which was on the floor next to him. Ray opened his door and Bob threw the bottle out. Once Mikey had drunk some water, and then offered it round to everyone, Gerard turned back around in his seat so he could see everyone. "The plan is that we're gonna just keep driving until we find a neighbourhood where there are few to no Walkers, and we can set up camp there. Everyone agree with me?" 

Everyone nodded- but it wasn't like they were all going to say no. Gerard started up the car, and then started driving. It was kind of hard to get through the cars that were piled up in the middle of the freeway, but once Gerard had gotten the car through, the rest of the drive was easy. 

* * *

 

Frank, much like the day before, had no idea how long they'd been driving for. Bob and Mikey were whispering about something in the back, and Ray and Gerard had started talking about different states they could go to, to see if there was a safe place for them to say. Frank zoned out of most of the conversation- it wasn't his decision where they were going. He was just going to stick with them until they found a working car that he could use to drive back to his mom and Jamia. 

The snow seemed to melt away the further they drove. They couldn't be far from where they'd been on the freeway, or even from the house, anyway. Frank had just been driving around aimlessly, and Gerard didn't really seem to know where he was going either, no matter how much he concentrated on the signs and the road. Not that Frank was looking at him, though. 

Frank drifted in and out of listening to Ray and Gerard's conversation, and whatever Bob and Mikey were whispering about, too. When he wasn't listening, he was looking out at the houses when they drove through suburbs, huge buildings when they drove through cities, and trees and fields and nothingness when they drove down freeways. 

"Maybe the government still has a camp in Atlanta." Ray said. Frank snapped out of his daydream, and turned his head to look back at Ray. 

"Atlanta? Thats miles away from Jersey!" 

"Frank, we're already miles away from Jersey." Gerard said. Frank frowned, and turned to look at him. 

"What do you mean?"

"We're at least in South Carolina by now." 

"South Carolina? I'll never see my-" Frank stopped himself from talking about his mom and girlfriend. Gerard's words from yesterday rang in his ears.  _And now you. You're part of my family now._ "I'll never see Jersey again." 

"Maybe. One day. Hopefully." Ray said. Frank didn't reply. He just turned back in his seat and looked out of the window. His heart had sunk completely. There was a chance he'd see his mom and Jamia one day, but it was highly unlikely. He had no idea how to get back to New Jersey. He'd had no idea he'd even driven out of New Jersey, anyway. Maybe they weren't even in Jersey. And maybe, though Frank didn't want to believe it, they weren't even alive. 

They drove through the suburbs of one city- Frank had no idea what one it was- and they all noticed how there were no Biters at all. It was a little creepy, but Frank was glad that they could finally stop somewhere, whether it was for a few hours, or a few weeks- it was better than having to drive for any longer. Gerard pulled over at one of the biggest houses on the street they were driving down. 

"Is it safe?" Ray asked. Gerard shrugged, and then turned around so he was facing everyone in the back. 

"We'll have to scope it out, but from the looks of it, all the Walkers from around here have moved on."

"Well then lets go check it out!" Frank said, and Gerard nodded in agreement.

"We'll check out everything in two groups. Mikey, Bob- stay with Ray and scope out the top floors. Frank and I will take the first floor and the yard. Got it?" Everyone nodded, murmuring in agreement. They all picked up their own backpacks, making sure their weapons were close at hand, before climbing out of the car, and walking up the driveway to the house. The door, though it looked like it had been kicked in before, due to the scrape marks on the wood, was now barricaded from the inside. They all tried kicking it down, but it just wouldn't budge (Gerard even tried smashing it down but his bat, but even that didn't help at all).

"The door round back might be open." Mikey said. They walked around back, like Mikey had suggested, but the door, just like the one back at the front of the house, was barricaded from the inside as well. Frank looked up, to see if there were any open windows, but there was only one, and it was on the second floor. It wasn't very big, but if Frank wiggled, he could probably squeeze through it.

"Someone must've had to make a quick exit," He said, pointing up at the open window. "You think there might be any Biters inside?"

"It's unlikely. Unless whoever was inside locked them in a room and they can't get out. If there was any, they'd be throwing themselves at the door by now." Gerard said. He stepped back, trying to work out how high they'd have to reach to get into the the window. "Frank, you think you could get into the window and then un-barricade the door?"

"If I could get up there, then yeah, I could."

"How are you gonna get up there?" Gerard asked. Frank shot him a look that had  _fuck off_ written all over it. 

"I'm not a genious! I don't know." 

"I could give you a boost?" Ray suggested. Frank thought about it for a few seconds, and then shook his head. 

"You're tall, dude, but not tall enough for me to actually get up that high."

They all stood around, sort of staring up at the window, until Frank announced: "I'm gonna have to jump."

Mikey laughed. "Unless you're secretly a fucking kangaroo-"

"No, idiot, if Ray boots me up, and I jump, I may just be able to cling on, get in, and hope that there are no Biters in there."

Ray nodded, and leant against the side of the house. He locked his hands together, and leant forward a little. Frank handed his backpack to Bob, stepped forward and put his hands on Ray's shoulders, and one of his feet in Ray's locked hands. "Any last words you guys wanna say to me incase I don't come back?" Frank asked.

"Nice knowing you, dude." Mikey grinned. 

"Yeah, you're a cool guy, Frank." Bob added.

"Be careful." Gerard said. 

"At least  _someone_ believes in me!" Frank laughed, and then he looked down at Ray. "Let's go for it." Ray nodded, and Frank bounced on the foot that was still on the floor. As soon as he pushed down on Ray's shoulder, and lifted his foot up off of the floor, Ray pushed his locked hands upwards as Frank jumped, and suddenly he was literally flying through the air. He forgot what he was doing for a second, as he was terrified at the thought of falling and amazed that he was up in the air, but luckily his hands reached out and grabbed the ledge of the window. 

"Ohshitshitshitshit _shit_!" Frank shouted, as his fingers slipped a little, and his boots scraped the bricks as he tried to get a hold on the wall. He scrambled for a second, trying to get his balance, his feet sliding down the wall and his hands suddenly feeling like they had the power to rip out the entire window if he wanted to. Once his fingers stopped slipping, and he was almost crouching on the wall, he took a deep breath, and looked down at the ground. It looked so far away, though Frank knew it was only a few meters. 

"Are you okay?" Gerard asked him, and Frank nodded. He took another deep breath, and then breathed out, and then repeated a few times, before pulling himself up so he was already halfway into the house. But that was only the easy bit, because he still had to get the rest of his body through. The window wasn't high from the floor in the room he was in, but when he managed to wriggle his way through, it would be a straight drop onto wooden floor and that would likely hurt and create a loud noise. There were no Biters in the room though, which was good. 

He wiggled his way in a little further, but his legs were sort of just dangling outside in the air, and not really helping out much. He grabbed hold of the wall inside the house, and pushed back against it, so his body would go in further. Somehow, with the help of the wall, he managed to get in. He fell to the floor with a loud thump, and stood up as quick as possible, his hand going straight for his knives. When there was no movement from anywhere in the house, Frank stepped forward, and made his way out of the room. The stairs were only a couple of paces away from the room he was in, and so he jogged down them, but paused at the bottom to see if he could hear any other sounds in the house. There was none, once again, and so he made his way through the living room, and out into the kitchen, where the door that Gerard, Mikey, Bob and Ray were standing by was. 

Gerard was right- the door was barricaded. There were a few nails that were holding a couple of wooden boards up. Frank took one of his knives out of his belt, and started pulling the nails out with that. It took his a few minutes to get them all out and the boards down, but as soon as he'd done it, he opened the door. Gerard stepped through first, looking overly relieved that Frank was safe. Mikey was next, and then Bob, who gave him his backpack back, and then Ray, who closed the door behind himself.

"Let's go check out the house then." Gerard said. Frank nodded, and then followed Gerard into the front of the house. 

* * *

 

The rooms downstairs were all clear. As were upstairs, and in the attic, and in the yard. There was a working shower, that actually had hot water too. The refrigerator worked but only if you plugged it into a particular outlet, and there were three bedrooms and four beds, and clothes that had been left behind, but were pretty small and so only really fit Mikey and Frank. There wasn't much food left in the house, save for a few cans of soup and beans, a four packs of crackers, a mouldy lasagna on the table which was thrown away as soon as they saw it, a box of unopened cereal, and a couple of pieces of hard candy that hadn't gone bad- but other than that, it was empty. 

They shared half of one of the packs of crackers, and had half a tin of soup each, and then the sun started to set. Ray and Gerard re-barricaded the doors, and then they all headed upstairs. Bob and Ray instantly ran into the bedroom with two single beds- alright, it was bright pink, but they weren't going to be picky- and Ray went into the bedroom that was white and blue and had soccer teams names and picture plastered onto the walls. 

_Great,_ Frank thought, as he and Gerard both walked into the only remaining bedroom- the master bedroom, with a huge bed, even though one of them was not going to be sleeping in it. 

"I'll sleep on the couch." Frank said, and started to head out of the room. Gerard grabbed his wrist, and then shook his head at Frank. 

" _I'll_ sleep on the couch, you sleep in here."

"No, it's okay, I'm sure the couch isn't  _that_ uncomfortable." Frank laughed a little, even though he was  _not_ looking forward to sleeping on the couch. 

"Well, I mean, neither of us have to sleep on the couch. The bed is huge. We're not really gonna be getting in each others personal space while we sleep, are we?" Gerard chuckled lightly, trying to ease out the slightly awkward situation they were in. 

"Uhm. Okay. Sure, whatever." Frank agreed (if that could be counted as 'agreeing'). 

* * *

 

Frank got changed into one of the t-shirts he found, and comfortable pants, before climbing into bed. Gerard had gone off, wandering around the house somewhere, and Frank hoped that he would fall asleep before Gerard came back, to save himself from the awkward 'goodnights' that they'd share before falling asleep. 

Frank was squashed as close to the edge of the bed as possible even though there was enough room for him to spread out without getting on Gerard's side. As he started to fall asleep, there was creaking noise, and Frank saw Gerard's silhouette in the doorway. A few seconds later, the bed dipped a little, before evening out again. It was silent for a few seconds, before Frank felt Gerard rolled over. 

"Frank," Gerard whispered. "Are you still awake?"

"Uhuh." Frank replied. 

"Thank you for listening to me yesterday. It was weird opening up to someone. I never had really opened up to someone before." Frank was still facing away from Gerard, and so couldn't see his facial expression. He guessed it would be serious, like Gerard always was, but when he had the guts to roll over and face Gerard, Gerard was smiling a little. 

"It's okay. It was cool that you could trust me." Frank smiled back at Gerard, and Gerard just smiled back even more. It was still weird seeing Gerard smile, but Frank was already growing fond of it. 

"I trust you a lot, Frank. Probably as much as I trust Mikey."

"Really? I mean, I don't know about that-"

"No, honestly," Gerard cut it. "I do."

Frank didn't know what to say to that. He just smiled a little again, and then nodded, not bothering to argue with Gerard anymore, because Gerard would just keep on pushing on until Frank believed it, anyway. Frank's eyes wandered to the wall behind Gerard, but he could still feel Gerard's eyes on him. Frank felt his belly flip a little when he realised that Gerard was  _still_ smiling. He hadn't felt his belly do that flippy thing in ages. It was a good year ago, maybe longer than that. Then he remembered it- it was when he first told Jamia he loved her- and the moment she said it back, his belly went all weird and he couldn't really explain it.

Frank looked back at Gerard, about to say something to him, but he quickly snapped his mouth shut when he noticed that Gerard had fallen asleep, and still had that little smile on his face. Frank's belly did that thing again, and he paused for a second. His belly had only ever done that flippy thing when he was with Jamia. It was  _only_ supposed to do that flippy thing when he was with Jamia. 

So why the _fuck_ had it done that when he was with Gerard?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> extra long chapter woo (it was like 3000 words long)! i said there'd be more frerard!! though its not exactly proper frerard atm haha. if you liked this chapter (or even the whole story so far) then don't forget to leave kudos, and also comments, telling me what you love/hate about it. thank you so much for reading <3


	10. They're Teaching Me To Kill...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i read gerards interview yesterday, and i have to say i am more than proud of him (though i was proud of him before ofc). he chose being healthy and happy over the band and if that kept him alive then that makes me more than happy too. i know a lot of people were still calling him selfish over the end of mcr, but ugh he could have died or ended up in hospital and if you can't respect that then thats YOU being selfish.
> 
> okay sorry rant over i just have no where else to rant and i needed to put that out there. im sure none of you guys that are reading this story thought that though!!! 
> 
> okay, i hope you enjoy chapter 10! <3

Frank had been sitting in the kitchen for a long time, eating half a pot of beans off of a plastic plate he found in one of the cupboards. He'd initially sat down on the floor whilst waiting for the beans to heat up, but then when he had them on the plate, he just couldn't find the energy to go anywhere. After eating about half of his plate of beans, his mouth started going numb, and he just couldn't eat anymore. 

It wasn't because he didn't  _want_ to eat- of course he did, he was starving- but he just physically  _couldn't._ The memory of yesterday had hit him. It shouldn't have slapped him around the face as much as it had, but it did. The memory of his stomach flipping when Gerard was smiling at him, and when Gerard had told him he trusted him as much as he trusted Mikey- well, that was enough to make his stomach flip again. He stared down at the plate of beans in his lap, and realised that he wouldn't be eating anymore this morning, or at least until he got his appetite back. 

Frank stood up, trying to clear the memory out of head whilst he put the rest of the beans back into the pot, and took his plate and fork to the sink so he could wash them up. He turned the tap on, but only left it on cold as he didn't want to use up any of the warm water incase it stopped working because he'd used it for too long. He looked up from the plate as he cleaned it, and was met face to face with another wooden board that probably covered a window. He knew what was outside the window- a yard, and more houses in the distance- but he couldn't help imagining that it was different out there. The yard had three kids out there- two little girls, and an older boy, who had lived here before, and their parents who were maybe playing a game with them, or something. And a dog. Frank always loved dogs. He could never have one though, because his mom didn't really like them. 

"Morning," Frank jumped, dropping plate in the sink. He turned his head, and saw Gerard, peering into the pot of beans. "You're lucky that plate was plastic." Gerard turned to look at Frank too, a smirk on his face, as he grabbed the spoon out of the pot, and ate a mouthful of beans. Gerard made a weird face once he'd started to chew. "Wait, how come some of these beans are cold, and the rest are warm?" 

"Uhm, I warmed my beans up in the pot, and then put the other tins of beans in the pot, but then I never finished my beans, so..."

"Why didn't you finish your beans? You can't not eat them."

"I wasn't hungry," Frank lied. "More for everyone else now, though."

"True." Gerard agreed, and then he moved the pot of beans over onto the stove, and turned it on so he could warm them up. Frank finished washing up the plate, and then left it to dry on its own because they didn't have anything they could dry it up with. Gerard was busy stirring the beans, whistling to himself, and so Frank decided to wander into the living room. 

There was a TV, and he itched to turn it on, but not only would it be using up energy they needed, even though there would only be the government's national crisis warning repeated over and over again, but more than likely, it would just be a blank screen and white noise. Frank stared longingly at the TV, before finally giving up the idea, and sitting down on the couch.

Gerard came and sat down next to him, and started tucking into his beans. Frank watched him shoveling the food into his mouth, and Frank's stomach gurgled, but he didn't want to eat anymore, no matter how hungry he still was. The stairs started creaking a little, and Frank looked up to see Ray. "Guys," He said, announcing his presence. "Theres a few Walkers coming towards us."

"How many?" Gerard asked, dropping his fork and plate on the coffee table and standing up. 

"I counted eight."

"So nothing to worry about?" 

"No. But they're heading towards us. Isn't it best to get rid of them before they get too close?"

Gerard shrugged, but Frank nodded. "It's better to be safe than sorry, right?" Frank asked.

"You're right." Ray agreed, and Gerard then nodded. 

"Let's go then."

* * *

 

Frank, Gerard and Ray were squatting behind their car, still in their pyjamas, holding onto their weapons. 

"We really should have gotten changed first," Frank said. "I feel exposed."

They watched at the Biters came slowly towards them. They were pausing every few steps, sniffing the air, and then carrying on. Frank wasn't nervous, but he was cold and just wanted to get this over with so he could back inside. He kept squirming, urging the Biters on, hoping they'd hurry up.

"Have you got ants in your pants?" Ray asked.

"Probably." Frank laughed. 

The leading Biter was a few meters in front of its group, and so that was the first one to start walking up the path to the house. Frank looked at Ray and Gerard, and Gerard nodded, before Frank threw his knife at the Biters head. It went down straight away, but then attracted the attention of a couple more Biters. They hurried over, and Frank threw three more of his knives, killing them. 

"I have two knives left, so you two better get ready." Frank said, and Gerard nodded. He twisted his bat round in his hands, and the moment the next Biter walked along, he jumped out from behind the car, and smashed it over the head. Ray and Frank jumped out from behind the car at the same time, joining Gerard to finish off the next three Biters. Ray completely decapitated one of the Biters with his machete, and then once the head rolled away, still gnashing at Ray, he stabbed it through the head. Gerard smashed the next one over the head, and Frank grabbed his bigger knife, and stabbed the last one through its eye. 

Once the last Biter had dropped to the floor, Frank stepped back, and looked at the mess they'd made. Gerard pulled the knives out of the Biters heads, and handed them back to Frank. Frank thanked him, and then slid them back into his belt. "Shouldn't we clear these up?" Frank asked. 

"No. It'll ward off any Biters that think about coming near the house, anyway." Gerard said. 

* * *

 

Once they were back in the house, Frank went out into the kitchen and washed his knives. Ray and Gerard were talking about something in the living room, but he couldn't hear what it was. He dried the knives off with a piece of cloth, and then put them back into his belt. Bob and Mikey still weren't awake, even though it was already 10 a.m. He put the pot of beans in the fridge, and then went in the dining room to look through his bag. 

He still had a few cans of beans in there, and his gun, and an entire box of ammo. He had three pairs of jeans, five t-shirts, some underwear, and socks, but other than that, that's all he had. Frank tapped his foot on the floor, thinking about what he could do next, but Ray walked into the dining room, and cut off his thoughts. "Hey, Frank," Ray smiled at him, and then pulled up a chair next to him. "Gerard told me he told you about what happened when we left our camp."

Frank nodded, and surprisingly, Ray smiled. "That's good."

"Why is that good?" Frank frowned. 

"Well..." Ray thought about what to say for a few seconds. "Gee doesn't really open up to people much. When all of this started, he sorta closed up, but then when the camp went down, he closed up even more, and he toughened up. You probably won't believe me but before everything, he was like, the happiest and simultaneously the most emotional guy you'd ever meet. But then...he changed. He hasn't smiled properly in four years."

"Four years?"

"Four years," Ray confirmed. "Mikey couldn't even get him to smile. And that's when we knew he was getting bad," Ray sighed, looking upset at the memory. Afterall, Gerard and Ray _are_ best friends, and not seeing your best friends smile for four years must be the worst thing in the world. "But he seems happier now. Has he smiled with you?" 

"Uh..." Frank was conflicted. Should he tell Ray that Gerard almost smiled nonstop around him now? Or would that make Ray feel upset or a bad friend? Frank decided that Ray would probably want to know that Gerard _did_ seem and _was_  happier now. "Yeah, he has. A lot, actually."

Ray looked astonished. "Really? That's awesome. He must really like you then." Ray laughed. 

"I don't know. I don't think he likes me  _that_ much. I mean, not as much as Mikey."

"I think he does," Ray said, and then stood up. "Don't doubt it, Frank. He likes you. _A lot_." And with that, Ray was gone. 

* * *

 

Frank walked back into the living room, and Gerard was sitting on the couch, staring at the TV, even though it was off. "Hey," Frank said, smiling at Gerard, and then sitting on the other end of the couch. 

"Hey," Gerard smiled back. "I was thinking that maybe for like an hour a day, we should turn the TV on and see if it still works." 

"Won't we be wasting electricity and energy and stuff?"

"Yeah, but an hour a day won't hurt, right?" Frank shrugged at Gerard, and then watched as Gerard turned the TV on. The volume was on mute, but the only thing on TV was static and white noise. Frank cringed, and Gerard turned the TV off. "Wanna help me look for some movies?" Gerard asked. Frank nodded, and then they both started rooting through the cupboards in the corner of the room. 

"Jackpot!" Gerard said, the moment they opened the cupboard. There were movies and TV boxsets piled on top of each other. Gerard and Frank both started pulling them out, throwing ones they didn't know or like onto one pile and then putting the ones they did like and know onto another. 

"Fuckin' Nightmare Before Christmas, man!" Frank grinned, pulling the movie out of the huge pile, and throwing it onto the good pile. 

"You like that film?" Gerard raised his eyebrow at Frank, and Frank nodded eagerly. 

Once they had a pile of movies they didn't want, and ones they did, Gerard started piling the bad ones back into the cupboard, and Frank took the others over to the TV, and stacked them there. "I actually think that we should watch one movie a day." Gerard said, and Frank shrugged again. 

"If we watch Nightmare Before Christmas first, then I agree." Frank laughed, and Gerard rolled his eyes, but then agreed. 

They both sat down in front of the TV, and went through the movies they'd chosen, telling each other what their favourites were and what ones the other had chosen but they didn't like. "Texas Chainsaw Massacre is creepy," Gerard said.

"I agree, but it's still a good movie." 

Frank had no idea how long they were sitting there, but his stomach flipped so many times that he soon lost count and just went with it.  _He likes you. A lot._ Frank scolded himself for remembering what Ray had said. Sure, Gerard liked him. But only a little. Unless Ray meant something else. Maybe Ray meant Gerard liked him. Liked him, liked him, not just liked him, in the way that Gerard liked Mikey. 

Frank was daydreaming again, only this time he was staring at Gerard whilst doing so. Gerard had stopped talking, and was staring down at the pile of movies between them, a faint blush spreading across his cheeks. "Oh god, sorry," Frank said, snapping out of his daydream as quick as he could, trying to cause Gerard (or himself, for that matter), no more embarrassment than needed. 

"It's okay," Gerard laughed softly. "I daydream a lot too. I used to, I mean." 

"Don't get back into the habit. It's not fun," Frank laughed a little louder than Gerard, but Gerard was still staring down at the pile of movies, avoiding Frank's gaze. "Dude, you okay?" Frank asked Gerard. Gerard nodded, and finally looked back up at Frank. He was still blushing, and Frank's stomach flipped once again, no matter how much he'd willed it not to. 

"Yeah, I'm good." Gerard smiled, reassuring Frank. Gerard then stood up, and offered Frank a hand up. Frank took it, and almost as soon as he was on his feet, Gerard hugged him. 

"Oof-" Frank hugged Gerard back, a little confused but still grateful that Gerard had hugged him. His stomach was doing somersaults, and he just couldn't get it to calm down. Gerard hugged him for a few seconds, before pulling away, and smiling at him. 

"Thank you." Gerard said.

"What for?" Frank asked. Gerard was really confusing him right now. Gerard just shrugged. 

"Everything, I guess." He answered, and then he smiled quickly at Frank again, before turning around and heading back upstairs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> meh that was just sort of a filler chapter. nothing much interesting happened, ik, but more action/drama and frerard will come next time, i promise. also, welcome back ray toro (irl, but i suppose he had a bigger part in this bit of the story haha). im so stoked that hes working on a project!!!! im so excited for it!!!!
> 
> thank you for reading, please leave kudos and comments as they're always rad and i love getting them (especially comments because i love reading ur opinions on the story) <33


	11. ...Who's Teaching Me To Love?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i am finally going to see guardians of the galaxy tomorrow. i am so excited. 
> 
> i hope you enjoy this chapter.

When Mikey finally woke up, Frank was still sorting through the pile of movies he and Gerard had picked out of the cupboard. Mikey watched Frank for a few seconds, confused as to what he was doing, but once he realised that he was piling the movies up in alphabetical order (because Frank liked having everything neat), he sat down and start helping him. When Mikey handed Frank the next movie box, Fran thanked him, and then started on the next pile.

"Where did Gee go?" Mikey asked, handing Frank another movie to put on the pile. 

"Upstairs, I think. Did you not hear him?"

"No," Mikey chuckled. "I've been asleep since I went to bed yesterday. And now I'm starving. Have you cooked any beans?"

"Yeah. Well, Gerard cooked the rest of them. I'm guessing he put them back in the refrigerator."

"Cool, I better go re-reheat them, then." Mikey handed Frank the final movie, before standing up and heading off in the direction of the kitchen. Frank was left staring at the boxes of movies, wondering what he could do next. Sometimes, the end of the world was really boring. 

He decided that maybe he should go upstairs, and see what other things he could find up there. Maybe there were more movies, or more clothes, or even more food that they hadn't found yesterday. They'd have to go out to find more food more soon than later, and so if Frank could help put off that chore for another couple of days, then he definitely would. 

As he started to walk upstairs, Bob started to walk down them, looking extremely tired and still half asleep. "Hey Bob." Frank said, pressing his back against the wall so Bob could get past him easily. 

"Hi." Bob said, half-waving at him and then yawning straight after. Once Bob was past him, Frank continued upstairs. The house in the light looked a lot different. The walls were a very light beige colour, and had a few, but not many, pictures hanging up. Frank stopped halfway up the staircase to look at a picture of the family who used to live here before. The parents seemed to be in their mid 30's- the mom had light brown hair, and the dad had dark brown. There were two young girls, probably around the age of 7 or eight. They weren't twins- Frank could tell because one had their mothers light brown hair, and the other had her fathers dark brown hair. There was also a boy, who Frank guessed was about 12 or thirteen. He shared the same colour hair as his mom and sister, and sitting on his lap, was a little boy probably no older than 1. 

Frank's heart broke at the sight of the little boy. This was no world for a child, whether they were 1, or hell, even Frank's age. Because Frank still technically  _was_ a child. He might have fended for himself for while, but that didn't make him any older. 

But really, this world was no world for anyone. Frank had seen it break people in half, like Mikey, who, only a few days ago, didn't want to live anymore. And sometimes literally- Frank had seen people ripped apart by Biters and though he'd tried to get rid of the memories so many times, they'd just keep on flooding back to remind him that his world wasn't safe anymore. 

Frank stopped looking at the picture, and continued to head on upstairs. He desperately pushed the thoughts out of his head, even though he knew they'd resurface in not too long. Ray was the first person he saw when he got upstairs. He was in the bedroom he'd claimed at his own, remaking his bed, because Ray was the only tidy one (apart from Frank) in their group. Ray didn't notice Frank, and so Frank headed on down towards his and Gerard's bedroom. 

Gerard was sitting on the bed, flicking through a comic he'd probably found whilst he was up here. Frank stood at the entrance to the room, wondering whether he should go in or not. Gerard ran a hand through his hair, and looked up from the comic, but before he could invite Frank in, Frank had already turned around and walked off in the opposite direction. At the end of the corridor was the bathroom, completely white apart from the moss and mould that was beginning to form in the bottom of the sink. Frank reminded himself to tell someone else about that problem, as he was  _not_ going to be touching it. A door along was Bob and Mikey's bedroom. It was bright pink, almost blinding, and Frank wondered how they'd slept in here. He was about to walk in, but then realised that not only would there be nothing of interest for Frank in here, but the girls were young and so more than likely didn't have any food in here. 

Frank turned around, and started to head back towards his and Gerard's bedroom. It felt weird even thinking that;  _his and Gerard's._ Gerard was still on the bed, reading his comic, but looked up instantly when Frank stood in the doorway this time. 

"I found some comics," Gerard said, pointing to the floor next to him. There was a huge pile of comics next to Gerard, and Frank was surprised he'd found that many in just one house. "Well Ray did. The kid who lived here before must'a loved comics. Not as much as me and Mikey, though."

"Wait, how many comics did  _you_ have?" Frank asked. 

"Way more than this kid. Though me and Mikey shared them. Still way more." Frank laughed. If he thought that pile of comics were huge, and if Gerard and Mikey had owned more, then they must have had an entire room full, or something.

Frank walked around to his side of the bed, and sat down next to Gerard. "Pass me a comic." Frank said. Gerard picked up a random one, and handed it to Frank. Frank had never really been one of reading comics, though he did enjoy them when he did. Gerard and him sat in silence, reading their comics, only making a noise as they turned their pages. 

"If you two are too busy reading your comic, then Bob, Mikey and I are going out on a run."

Frank jumped when he heard Ray's voice. Everything had been quiet for a few minutes, and so he wasn't expecting sudden noise. Ray was standing in the doorway, already changed out of his pyjamas and his backpack slung over one of his shoulders.

"Hey, wait, no, I'm not letting Mikey go on his own." Gerard replied instantly, putting his comic book down on the bed, and standing up. 

"I'm not gonna be on my own, Gerard," Mikey said, coming to stand next to Ray. "I'll be with Ray and Bob. There are hardly any Walkers around, anyway."

"Mikey-"

"Fucking hell, Gerard," Mikey snapped. "I can do stuff on my own. You don't have to look after me all the time!" Mikey walked off, leaving no room for argument. 

"He'll be fine." Ray assured Gerard. Though Gerard didn't want to agree, he nodded, and then sat back down next to Frank. Ray walked off, after that, leaving Gerard and Frank on their own again. 

"He'll be fine." Frank repeated what Ray had said. Gerard nodded again, and then picked up his comic book, before leaning against Frank a little. Frank didn't say anything, but once again, his stomach flipped, and for some reason, he found himself smiling into his comic.

* * *

 

It had been quite a long time since Bob, Mikey and Ray had gone out, but both Gerard and Frank said nothing of it. Both of them were worried though- it usually took them three or four hours on a run, but the others had been almost seven hours. They hadn't taken the car, in fear it would waste gas that they would need, and they were checking out an entire blocks worth of houses, but it really shouldn't have taken them that long. 

Most of the time, Gerard and Frank had been reading comics, but Frank had persuaded Gerard to turn the TV on so they could watch Nightmare Before Christmas. They both sat on the couch, and kept the sound on only a little way because otherwise that could attract any Biters that might have started to wander around. Frank knew Gerard wasn't really concentrating on the movie, but more on the fact that his little brother could be in danger right that very second. 

Once the movie was over, Frank really had to go pee, and so he went upstairs and into the bathroom. He could have sworn he heard noises from outside whilst he was in the bathroom, but he guessed it was just his mind playing tricks on him. But then again, there really  _could_ have been noise outside, and so he thought it was just best to check that they were still okay. 

Frank went into Ray's bedroom, as the window in there had the best view of the street. Frank saw nothing at first, and everything seemed calm, but he could still hear noises. He squinted, looking as far down the street as he could. 

Everything had been too good to be true. They'd found a house, in a near Biter-less suburb, and not only that but the fridge still sort of worked, there was some food, and they all had a proper, comfy bed to sleep in. Frank's knuckles went white from gripping onto the window sill too hard. In the distance, at the end of the road, Biters, Biters, and even more Biters were walking towards them. 

Frank couldn't stop himself, and so shouted for Gerard. "Hold on!" Gerard had called, sounding as cheerful as he could possibly be, even though his brother could have been (and now most certainly was) in danger. Frank stood staring out the window, not knowing what to do. He heard Gerard walk up the staircase, and a few seconds later, he was standing next to Frank.

"What's wrong?" Gerard asked, confused as to why Frank looked so scared. But then he looked at what Frank was looking at, and his heart dropped. "No." He muttered, and turned away from the window. 

"We have to get out of here." Frank said, and Gerard shook his head. 

"Not without Mikey." 

" _We have to get out of here._ " Frank repeated, through gritted teeth. He knew Gerard wouldn't want to go, but he needed to get him out of here. Frank pushed past Gerard, and went to their bedroom. He grabbed his clothes, quickly changed into them, and then walked back into Ray's bedroom. Gerard was still just standing in the middle of the room, not doing anything. Frank quickly looked out the window, and saw that the Biters were coming closer, and very quickly. 

"Gerard-"

"We have to find Mikey."

"I know," Frank said. "But we have to get out of this house before we can do that." Gerard looked at Frank, and then nodded, before running off into their bedroom and getting changed as well. Frank ran downstairs, and grabbed as much food as he could fit in just two backpacks, and then quickly put his shoes on. Gerard was down a minute later, and put his shoes on too. Frank threading his belt through he jeans, and made sure all his knives were there. Gerard picked up his bat, put his backpack on, and then started to pull the wooden boards off of the back door. Frank quickly put his backpack on, and started to help Gerard. 

The moments the boards were off the door, they were out of it. The air outside was relatively warm, and Frank's leather jacket made him even more warm. He and Gerard ran towards the front of the house. The Trans Am was still parked out there, but the Biters were even more close. The ones near the front saw Gerard and Frank, and so started to hurry towards them. 

"We need to find Mikey!" Gerard said to Frank, just as they reached the Trans Am.

"We will. But we need to get in the car and get away from the herd first." Frank said. Gerard nodded, and quickly unlocked the car, before getting in. Frank took Gerard's backpack and bat, and kept them on his lap whilst Gerard started the car up, and sped away from the Biters and the house. 

They drove down the road, and then when they started to turn down the next road, there were even more Biters coming towards them then. "Fuck." Gerard said, and span the car back around, before turning down another road. There were no Biters down that road, but the Biters from the other roads were following them. Gerard tried to turn down another road so he could drive back around to the house so he could find Mikey, Ray and Bob, but there were even more Biters there. 

"We have to keep on driving." Frank said, and Gerard obliged, turning the car around again, and driving further away from the house. They drove for a while, but then Gerard just stopped the car in the middle of the road. "What are you doing?" Frank asked him, as Gerard got out of the car. 

"I have to find Mikey." Gerard said. There were a few Biters wandering towards them, and Frank wasn't planning to die today. 

"No, Gerard, you have to get back into the car. We'll find him, but we need to get out of here."

"No-"

"Gerard, get in the car." 

"No, you go, I need to find-" Frank stepped forward, cupping Gerard's face between his hands, and kissing him. Gerard froze, but then sunk into the kiss a second after. 

Frank pulled away, still cupping Gerard's face in his hands. "Get in the car." Frank demanded. Gerard nodded, and then sat in the passenger seat. Frank, as soon as he was in the car, started it, up, and started driving, just as the Biters started to run into the car. Frank didn't turn around to look at Gerard, but he could hear Gerard sniffing quietly. Frank reached his hand out blindly, keeping the other on the wheel. He found Gerard's hand, and squeezed it a little, reassuring him. Gerard's sniffles soon died down, but his grip on Frank's hand never faltered. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> first things first; long chapter. that was almost 2500 words long, woo
> 
> secondly; frerard. it finally properly happened. alright, it was like for two paragraphs, but it happened. which means actual proper frerard will be happening from now on. 
> 
> what did you guys think? did you like the [tiny bit of] frerard? are you looking forward to the next chapter? anything else you liked/hated?
> 
> don't forget to leave comments, and kudos! thanks


	12. Take My Fucking Hand And Never Be Afraid Again

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey everyone! idk if anyone reads these but thats super cool if you do. first of all, i just wanna say sorry for not updating in like four or five days. i actually started writing like three days ago but i didn't know where i was going with chapter, and so edited and deleted a lot of stuff, so thats why it took so long for it to be uploaded. 
> 
> second of all, i just want to know what YOU want to see in this story. do you want to see more/less frerard? do you want more characters, and if you do, do you want them to be anyone in particular? (also i have an idea for that so if you don't want more people in it then let me know) please tell me in the comments, as thats really helpful. i dont wanna do something that people don't want to read, so if you have any suggestions, thats super rad. 
> 
> thank you for reading this a/n. thank you for reading this story. it means a hell of a lot when people read this, and especially when i receive kudos and comments. hope you enjoy this chapter :)

"Gee...hey, Gerard, wake up."

Frank, though it was dark and he could barely see Gerard's face, watched as Gerard woke up, suddenly looking surprised at the lack of light around them. Frank was still holding Gerard's hand, and was rubbing small circles into the back of it with his thumb. Gerard yawned, and then rubbed his eyes with his spare hand. He looked around the car, down to his and Frank's hands, and then back to Frank who was still watching him.

"Where are we?"

"We're parked on the side of the highway," Frank said. "We're not too far away from the house, though. We can go look for the others in the morning."

"In the morning? Frank, we have to go now!" Gerard sat up in his seat, moving his hand away from Frank's grasp. He was about to go get out of the car, but Frank managed to grab him arm and pull him back into his seat.

"There are Biters out there that will kill us if we step out of this car. Mikey, Ray and Bob will be fine. We will find them in the morning, and then move on to another town." Gerard looked unconvinced by what Frank had said, but he sat back in his seat, as Frank sighed with relief. The last thing he wanted was having to chase after Gerard down a freeway with the chance of Biters jumping out at them at any moment. 

They sat in silence for a while. They'd sat in silence before, so it wasn't really awkward, but there was the memory of the kiss that had happened earlier that was still lingering in the air. Frank decided he wouldn't say anything about it, unless Gerard asked. Frank looked at the road out in front of them, and unlike the last freeway they'd spent the night on, this one was completely empty of cars, except their one. There was trees lining either side of the road, but Frank had parked on the only part that actually had a huge gap between the trees, so if there were any Biters, they'd be able to see them before they were anywhere near the car. 

Frank snapped out of his thoughts when Gerard took his hand, and intertwined their fingers. Frank looked at him, and smiled, and Gerard gave him a small smile, before looking back down at their hands. "Frank?" Gerard said, after a moment. 

"Yeah?"

"You kissed me."

"Yeah." 

"Why?"

Frank didn't really know what to say. Because he _needed_ to? Because he wanted to distract Gerard for a moment? Neither of them were exactly good answers, and though both of them were true, he didn't say either of them. He instead opened his mouth to say something, but when nothing came out and no more good answers came to mind, he just closed his mouth and didn't answer. 

"Did you want to kiss me?"

"Yes," Frank said, without any second thought. "I wouldn't have kissed you if I didn't want to."

Gerard smiled a little more than he had before. He looked up at Frank, and Frank felt himself blush. "So...you like- I mean, you, uh-?"

"Yes, I like you." Frank smiled back at Gerard, and leaned over to Frank and kissed him. Frank's cheeks heated up even more, and he was so glad it was too dark for Gerard to actually notice. The kiss barely lasted five seconds, but Frank suddenly felt happier than he had in a long time. Not since-

"Go to sleep, I'll keep watch." Gerard said, and Frank whispered a thank you, before leaning back in his seat, keeping Gerard's hand tight in his. 

For the first time in ages, he barely remembered that his whole goal had been to find his mom and Jamia. Now, it was just to find his friends and keep Gerard safe. 

* * *

 It was just after dawn when Frank woke up. The sunlight was almost blinding, even if it was very early in the day. He squinted, readjusting to his surroundings- they were still on the highway, and still in the car- when he noticed that the car door was open, Gerard wasn't sitting next to him. The next thing Frank noticed was that Gerard's bat was still there, as was his backpack. 

Frank's mind raced at 100 miles per hour, thinking up different things that could have happened to Gerard. Biters snatched him out of the car, but left Frank. Cannibals came along and took him for their next meal, but left Frank. Mikey, Bob and Ray found him and decided that they hated Frank and wanted to get out of there without Frank waking up. They were all ridiculous, but all Frank knew for sure was that Gerard wasn't in the car- so where was he? 

Frank made a move to get out of the car, but then he heard the other car door open. "Where are you going?" Gerard asked, and Frank let out a long breath. He turned back round to Gerard, who was sitting down now.

"Nowhere," Frank assured him. "I just- I woke up and you weren't there."

"I was checking the trunk to see if there was anything in there." Gerard said.

"Well?"

"Nothing but a flashlight and-" Gerard reached into his pocket and pulled out a tiny red pack. "A half eaten pack of chewing gum."

"Ooh!" Frank said, snatching the pack off of Gerard, and popping with into his mouth. He bit down on it, and then grinned at Gerard. "Strawberry!"

"They were probably Mikey's then," Gerard said, and when Frank tried to give them back to him, he shook his head. "Strawberry gum is gross. I only like mint."

"Suit yourself." Frank shrugged, and shoved the pack in his pocket. He then turned back to the steering wheel, and started up the car. "You ready?" He asked Gerard. Gerard nodded, and Frank tapped the wheel a few times, before pulling away from the side of the road, turning around, and driving back towards the house, where, hopefully, Mikey, Ray and Bob still would be. 

* * *

 

It took them half an hour to get back to the house. Frank swore that it had taken a lot longer, but then again, he had driven around a lot, trying to avoid the Biters and looking for a good place to park for the night. Gerard was on look out the entire way there, keeping an eye out for Biters or any signs of human activity, or maybe even Mikey, Ray and Bob, if they were lucky.

They weren't lucky, though. They stopped the car outside the house as there were no Biters around anymore. There were a few dead Biters littered around, though, which meant that-

"They've been here recently." Gerard said, speaking Frank's thoughts, as he climbed out of the car. He slid Frank's backpack over the top of the car, and Frank caught it, before slinging it over his back. 

"Yeah, looks like it." Frank agreed. They both walked up to the house before they checked anywhere else. If the others had wanted to stay somewhere to wait for Gerard and Frank, it would be here. However, when they pushed the back door, it swung open. Gerard and Frank had been the last ones out of here, and the others wouldn't have been so stupid as to not reboard it up when they came back here. 

Either way, it wasn't worth not checking, and so they checked around the house for any signs of very recent human activity. There was none. The crackers and other food that Gerard and Frank had left behind were still there, as were the movies, still piled up by the TV. 

Gerard picked up the crackers, and put them in his bag, whilst Frank finished making sure that no one was in the house. Once he was sure, he went into the living room, letting Gerard do one last look around the kitchen to see if they had missed any food. Frank looked at the pile of movies, wishing that they could have lived there for a while. He could have watched movies with Gerard, and maybe they could have had a normal life for a while. 

On the top of one of the piles, was Nightmare Before Christmas. Frank walked over to it, and picked it up. He turned the box over in his hands, before quickly putting it in his backpack. 

"You ready to go?" Gerard said from next to the couch. Frank looked back at him, and nodded, following him out the back of the house and back onto the street. 

* * *

They checked more houses than Frank could count. And in each one, there was no sign of life but a few Biters and a lot of spiders that scared the hell out of Frank. 

Frank knew that Gerard was starting to give up hope. The more they walked, to slower Gerard got- and it wasn't just because they'd used a hell of a lot of energy up today. But Frank also knew that Gerard wouldn't give up until he knew that Mikey wasn't alive. 

They made it down a few blocks, before Frank noticed fresh tire tracks on the floor, that started and ended every few inches. He pointed it out Gerard, who instantly started running away from Frank, following the tracks around the street.

"Gee!" Frank called after him, and once he knew Gerard wasn't going to stop, he sighed, and took off after him. 

"Gee!" Frank tried again, finally grabbing Gerard's attention when he turned his head around, even though he still didn't stop running. "Wouldn't it just be easier to go back and get the car?" 

Gerard didn't reply, and so Frank sped up, running as fast as he could to catch up with Gerard. He grabbed Gerard's backpack, pulling him backwards so he would stop. 

"What?" Gerard said. "They're  _so close._ There isn't a point in going back to get the car. Let's just  _go._ " Gerard grabbed Frank's hand, and tugged him along with him. 

Frank's legs were starting to give out by the time they made it to the end of the street. Gerard didn't seem tired- he was just ecstatic that  _maybe, just maybe,_ he'd see his brother again. They came to a crossroad, and across from them, there were shops and restaurants and Frank just  _knew_ what Gerard was thinking. 

"They'll be there, I know it." Gerard said, and then once again, tugged Gerard across the road with him.  

There were so many stores and apartments here, and as Frank looked around him, he knew they'd be here for a long time, unless Gerard had some inkling as to where they were. There were still tire tracks on the floor, and they ran alongside them, down a few more streets, passing fallen down buildings and walls with ivy climbing up them. Frank saw a Biter stuck inside a car, and his grip tightened on Gerard's hand. Gerard didn't seem to notice though, as he was too busy concentrating on the floor. 

He only came to a stop when the tracks ran out completely. "No." Gerard said, and he looked around desperately for the car that had made the tracks.

"Gerard, they'll be around here somewhere, I promise," Frank said, squeezing Gerard's hand a few times, to bring him out of his thoughts.

"Look." Frank pointed to a dirty car that was across the street from them, half parked on the road, and the other half parked on the sidewalk. The only clean parts of the car were handprints that were on the car doors. And, to top it all off- it was parked outside a comic book store. Gerard grinned, and, still holding onto Frank's hand, dashed across to the car and the store. Frank silently prayed to God, if He was still even around, that Mikey, Ray, and Bob were in the store, but not only that- that they were still alive. 

 


	13. Highways I Call Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey guys! first of all, i just want to apologise for my lack of updates in the last week or so. most of it was because i've been very busy, and the other half was where i just couldn't sit still long enough to write. i'm back at school tomorrow and i've been worrying about it and so anything productive i could have been doing in my free time (liking writing this chapter, for example) was just not being done. 
> 
> but yay, finally, the next chapter is here. i really hope you like it!!!

As Gerard walked into the comic book store, the bell on the door rung out, alerting whoever (and whatever) to their arrival. Frank was right behind him, cursing under his breath when he knocked the door, making the bell ring again. They stood still for a half a minute, waiting to see if they could hear any movement coming from around the store. Neither of them could see anything, especially as there were shelves upon shelves of comic books lined up. If there weren't posters of Batman and Superman lining the walls, the Frank might have mistaken this place for a library. 

Once they heard nothing, the walked further into the store. Frank could almost  _feel_ Gerard itching to get at the comic books, but his main focus was on finding his brother and his friends, and no amount of comic books would stop him from doing that. They checked for Biters, and thankfully, there were none. Frank's hand didn't leave his belt though, his hand continuously gripping onto one of the knives, preparing to launch it at whatever came towards them. 

"They were here- or at least someone was here. And recently." Gerard said pointing at the stack of comic books by the cash register. Frank didn't really know what Gerard was pointing at, but then he noticed that though there was a thick layer of dust both on the cash register and worktop, the comics were dust free and quite neatly placed. 

They looked around the store for a little longer, until Frank found a door which lead out to the back of the store. Gerard went first, holding his bat tightly in his hands, ready to bring down on a Biters head if needs be. Frank's hand hadn't moved from his belt once, but this time, he gripped onto one of the knives, ready to draw it out if a Biter attacked. 

But there was nothing there apart from dust, spider webs and boxes and more boxes of comic books and posters. Not only that, but through the dust on the floor, there were three sets of footprints leading towards the other side of the room. "They're here," Gerard said, a smile appearing on his face. "They're definitely here."

Frank followed his lead, following the footprints and watching them disappear once they reached the door. Gerard slowly opens the door. Frank's hand is back on the knife in his belt again, not even remembering when he moved it away. The door creaks, and Frank's prepares for the worst, so he's surprised when the door just opens up to show a room with a couch, a coffee table, a TV and another door leading out to what Frank guesses is outside.

"Huh," Gerard says. Frank knows that Gerard is disappointed that the others aren't here, because he's feeling the exact same way. He wants to flop down on the couch, and just sleep for a while because it's been a long day, and maybe after the sleep, he'll wake up, and they're back at his house with Mikey, Ray and Bob, and there are no Biters, and the last four years of his life have just been a horrible nightmare. 

Frank tries pinching himself, to see if he does wake up, but nothing happens apart from Gerard moving around the room to look for more clues, and Frank just has two tiny crescent shaped marks on his arm from where his nails dug in too hard. He sighs, and then sits down on the couch, letting Gerard search every inch of this place, seeing if the others have maybe left them a secret message as to where they are. 

Then Frank gasps. Gerard turns around, worried about why Frank gasped. Instead Frank just picks himself up off of the couch, then dropping to his knees, his hands slowly sliding under the coffee table, and grabbing at something. When he pulls his hand back out, he's now holding a piece of paper, with writing on it. Gerard quickly grabs the piece of paper off of Frank, and scans his eyes over it. 

'G and F,' the note says. 'We're all okay, apart from the fact that we're really tired and my back hurts from sleeping on that couch. We stayed here overnight after being chased by those Walkers. We hope you're both okay ~~and still alive~~. If you can make it, we'll be on the freeway at 7:30 p.m. If you're reading this any later than 8, then we're already driving towards Atlanta. Bob managed to get a radio working and we got a signal from some people there, and they've got food and shit, so keep your radio on and head down that way. See you there, -M.'

"Let's go!" Gerard says, and without a moments hesitation, he's out the door, Frank barely on his feet in time to catch up with him. Gerard's already out of the door when Frank gets into the main part of the store. He grumbles something about running way too much today as he runs out of the door too. He sees Gerard in the car that was parked outside the store, looking angry as he tries to start the car up. 

"It won't fucking-" Frank hears Gerard shout, and he looks around, making sure no Biters have tried to sneak up on them. Gerard sits in the car for a few minutes, before finally getting out, and without telling Frank where he's going, speeds off back they way they came. 

"Fuck!" Frank shouts at Gerard (but mainly because he's tired and doesn't want to run anymore). He runs as fast as his legs can take him, which is pretty fast, but not as fast as Gerard. Frank tries to speed up, but he's so tired, and he's reduced to a running-jogging rhythm as he follows Gerard all the way back to the Trans Am. Gerard only stops to swing his bat at a Biter that his standing right outside the car door. Frank can see, from a distance, that Gerard doesn't even bother to make sure its dead before climbing into the car and starting it up. 

Frank, the moment he's got the car door open, dives into the seat and closes the door. He doesn't even get a chance to breathe, before Gerard is driving away from the house, and towards the freeway. "Seven-thirty...seven-thirty..." Gerard repeats, his foot on the pedal and his knuckles white from how hard he's gripping the wheel. "How long have we got to get there?"

Frank looks at Gerard's watch. "Ten minutes." They'll never make it.

"We'll make it," Gerard says, "We'll make it." Frank isn't so sure. He's sure that last time, driving at this speed (though admittedly through a lot of Biters, and driving down a load of roads he didn't need to), they made it to the freeway in half an hour. And surely, they couldn't fit in a half an hour long trip in ten minutes. 

* * *

 

Frank was proved wrong when in fact, they made the trip in 12 minutes. Alright, it wasn't spot on, but it was close enough. Gerard stopped the car in the middle of the freeway and then got out, shouting Mikey's name loud enough to attract Biters from all around. When Mikey didn't show, Gerard ran down the freeway, peering into cars, desperately looking for his brother.

Frank stayed in the car, watching for Biters and Mikey, Ray and Bob, and also making sure that if they needed to make a quick getaway, he could just climb over to the drivers seat, get Gerard and then drive away. 

Frank had no idea how long he'd been sitting in the car- how long Gerard had been searching- but he knew it was a long time, because the sun started to set and the air started to get a little colder. Frank's heart, despite knowing that Mikey, Ray and Bob had left for Atlanta a while ago, sunk when Gerard came back to the car with a frown on his face and no Mikey by his side. 

"We'll try for Atlanta tomorrow." Frank said.

"I hate the word tomorrow." Gerard sighed, leaning back in his seat, and then turning his head to look at Frank. "I just wanna find the others. I miss my brother."

"I know Gee," Frank said, putting his hand in Gerard's when Gerard reached his hand out. "I miss him too."

They sat for a little while, but then Frank suggested that it would be a better idea if they parked on the side of the road, instead of the middle. Gerard turned the car around, and drove over to the side of the road, where they were almost completely covered from anything trying to eat them during the night. Tiredness soon overtook Frank. He tried hard to stay awake, to talk and listen to Gerard, but he apologised to him for yawning, and within a few seconds, he fell asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wahey chapter 12 DONE. hope you liked it! i know people want the others back like NOW but you'll have to wait for the next chapter(s)!!! thanks for reading, and don't forget to leave comments and kudos as they're always cool!


	14. The City Lights Are Hopeless For You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wowowowow
> 
> its been forever
> 
> in fact its 2015 and i haven't updated in like 4 months
> 
> hahahah i'm really really sorry
> 
> i have excuses about why i haven't updated, but i'm not going to list them. if you're desperate to know then just ask- i'd be happy to tell. 
> 
> but i got an email through from ao3 like 2 days ago saying 'oh you got some kudos on to the end' and i had a free weekend (finally) so i wanted to update.
> 
> i read the fanfic through and i saw i'd made a few mistakes through some chapters so a beta would be cool to check my spelling??? if anyone wants to that would be super rad and i will love you forever.
> 
> i hope you all had a good past 4 months and a really good christmas and new year. hesitant alien is a beautiful album. patrick stump is a father. hayley and chad got engaged. i got gerard way tickets for christmas to see him later this month so thats amazing because i owe my life to him and i shall be v emotional when i see him because he will be real and not just a face on my laptop/phone/tv. 
> 
> anyway, heres the chapter that i was supposed to write forever ago!!!!

Frank bolted awake when everything around him started to move. He gripped onto the car seat before he'd even opened his eyes, but when he had opened them, he just saw that Gerard had decided to start driving down the freeway without waking him up. Frank groaned, and then fell back against his seat. "What the fuck, Gee, why didn't you tell me we were leaving? I could have had a heart attack!"

Gerard laughed a little from next to him, and then swerved to miss a tree branch that had been pulled down. "You were tired, so I left you to sleep." 

Frank rolled his eyes, but once he finally got out of his grumpy morning mood and got himself comfortable again, he turned back to Gerard and watched him for a few seconds, seeing how he looked. "Tired," Frank decided on. "You're tired. Did you even sleep last night?"

Gerard shrugged, looking directly at Frank for half a second. "Where's the map? Do you know how to get to Atlanta?"

"Don't brush me off," Frank scolded. "You look tired; there's bags under your eyes."

"Thanks," Gerard said. "And I'm fine."

"You're not. You should have slept."

"I couldn't sleep, Frank," Gerard said, turning the wheel a little to follow the road. "Not when my brothers and friends are possibly out there right now, being eaten alive by Walkers when I- we should be there to save them."

"They'll be fine-"

"But what if they're  _not,"_ Gerard hissed. "What if this camp they're talking about is full of cannibals, and they get eaten.? Or if it's already been overrun but Walkers and they get eaten?"

"Gerard!" Frank half-shouted, shutting him up quickly. "They. Will. Be. Fine. And if not, you can punch me in the face."

Gerard stayed silent for a second. And then, "That's not a very even deal."

"Fuck you."

* * *

 Gerard had agreed with Frank, after driving for an hour, that he'd let Frank drive and would try to sleep. But when Frank started driving, Gerard just spoke about his memories with Mikey, when the world wasn't as bad as it was. They'd spend so much time together, despite the three year age difference, and they'd always been inseparable.

"We rarely argued," Gerard said. "We've argued more during the last four years than we had in the fourteen years before."

Frank listened intently, feeling a happiness bubble up inside of him at the fact that Gerard was telling him everything. Still, he kept his eyes on the road, looking out for any Biters that were heading towards them, or would cause them any trouble. 

A few hours after they'd set off, they saw signs saying 'Atlanta'. Gerard sat up completely in his seat, looking out the window to see the signs for Atlanta, Georgia along the side of the road.

"We're so close." Gerard whispered. Frank nodded, pushing his foot down on the accelerator, making the car speed up and leave tire marks down the freeway. 

After a few minutes of driving, Gerard gasped, and grabbed Frank's arm. "Stop!" He said, and Frank slammed on the brakes.

"What, Gerard?" Frank asked, after they'd come to a half in the middle of the freeway. Gerard didn't reply, just opened the car door and climbed out. In the almost blinding light of midday, Frank could just about make out what Gerard was running over to. He didn't get out of the car to follow Gerard, just watched as Gerard jumped up and down, pointing at the sign across the road. Frank couldn't really make out what Gerard was trying to say, but he knew exactly what he was talking about.

The sign that was saying the final 'welcome to Atlanta' was covered in red spray paint, that clearly said 'F&G'. Gerard wasn't pointing anymore, but had climbed over the metal barrier in the middle of the road, and was running over to the sign. Frank waited for Gerard to come back, getting ready to drive as soon as he got back.

When Gerard did come back, and climbed back in the car, his fingers were bright red. Frank frowned, but then Gerard smiled. "It was still a little dry- they've driven through recently." 

* * *

They'd been driving for at least another hour around the first few streets of the city, but with no sign of anyone, other than the few empty cans of food Gerard spotted and pointed out. "Why don't we check out the suburbs?" Frank suggested. "I'm betting there are thousands of Biters in the city. It'll be dangerous to go any further in."

"But...Mikey could be there. You don't think-"

"No, Gee. I think they're somewhere safe. I think we need to go in one of the closest police stations or electronic stores and get a CB. Find what signal they were talking about. Maybe they're there already."

"Yeah, okay." Gerard agreed. 

They drove around the first few streets again, until Gerard said there was an electronics store. Frank pulled over, and they got out together. They didn't bother with their backpacks, just their weapons, as they'd (hopefully) be right back. 

The door was smashed open, and as soon as Frank stepped through, a couple of Biters groaned and started for Frank. But he ducked out of their way as Gerard swung at their heads, taking them out quickly. They checked around the store, and right at the back was two CB's- one smashed, and the other one covered in blood. "Yuck," Frank muttered, grabbing a piece of cloth that had been on the floor next to his feet, and wiping the top of the radio down. "Okay, we're gonna have to take this back to the car." Frank said to Gerard, who nodded. 

Gerard carried the radio, and Frank covered him from the front, just in case there were any Biters around that they hadn't spotted. They climbed out of the broken door, just in time to see two guys smashing in the back windows of their car, grabbing for their backpacks and trying to make a run for it. "What the fuck?!" Frank shouted. The two guys turned around, seeing Frank and Gerard, and then started to make a run for it. 

"What the fuck?" Frank shouted again, and then realised he had to catch them, otherwise all of his and Gerard's ammo and food and drink would be gone. He started running, leaving Gerard behind. He pulled out one of his knives, chasing the guys down the street, and then threw the knife into one of the guys' leg. It went straight into the back of his thigh, knocking him down. 

"Brendon! Dude!" The other guy, who was still running, shouted at the guy on the floor. 

"Pete, get the fuck out of here! He's crazy!"

'Brendon' was trying to pull himself up, but the knife was lodged right in his thigh, maybe even into the bone (Frank couldn't tell yet), and so the guy in front, 'Pete', stopped, turned back, and tried to help Brendon off of the floor. But Frank got there first, grabbing his backpack off of Brendon, and aiming his knife at Pete. But Pete was smarter than Frank was- as Frank threw his knife, Pete ducked, and then dived straight for Frank's legs, knocking Frank off of his feet. 

Frank could faintly hear Gerard shouting in the background, but the guy, who was now kneeling above him, punched his face, hard, once, twice, and Frank tired pushing him off, but Pete was heavier and stronger than him, so he couldn't do it. On the third time, Frank could feel his nose crack, and blood spilling out of his nose and somewhere else on his face, before everything went black. He hated getting knocked out. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yoooo so there was the next chapter. hope you guys are okay with the other bandom members in the story. i don't think they'll be permanent fixtures (i mean, unless you really want them in it), but they're just there to move the story on
> 
> (also by the way, if you don't know what a CB is, its like one of the radio-microphone things that the police have in their cars. my mom used to have one in like the 80's and she doesn't stop talking about it lol)


	15. Oh, Take Me From The Hospital Bed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i started writing this as soon as i'd finished the other chapter lmao. i am also obsessed with adam lambert rn because hes great. 
> 
> I also just wanna say that i'm going to start updating as quickly as i can now. i can't make any promises but i will try to update every week :)

When Frank woke up, he was in a bed. A real bed. A slightly uncomfortable bed, but a bed nevertheless. Frank's eyes were a little blurry, but when they readjusted to the light, he saw that the ceilings were white- a little water stained, but the cleanest and whitest ceilings he'd seen in years. He then felt someones hand in his, and frowned. He looked next to him, and saw that Gerard was sitting in a chair next to his bed, and was asleep, his head resting on the wall behind him. Frank noticed that Gerard wasn't wearing his normal clothes, but was wearing a light blue, almost papery looking outfit, and his hair was the cleanest Frank had ever seen it. Gerard snored a little, making Frank laugh, but then Frank winced when his nose felt like it was going to explode.

That was enough to wake Gerard up, who let go of Frank's hand, quickly moving from his seat to the side of the bed, then cupping his face, searching for anything wrong with him. "Hey, Gee, what's wrong?" Frank asked, eyes going wide as Gerard stopped breathing. Gerard, after a few seconds, let out a long breath, and rested his forehead on Frank's. 

"You're all good," Gerard said, closing his eyes and stroking his thumbs across Frank's cheeks. "Can you see me?"

"Yeah? Why? What happened?" Frank asked. 

"Pete- the guy who punched you...you remember that?"

"Yeah? He knocked me out. I'm pretty sure he broke my nose too."

"He did. He punched you so hard and like, burst some blood vessels in your nose, broke it too. I think. They said you might go blind.. I just- I wasn't listening. I just wanted you to wake up." 

"I don't think I could have gone blind from a broken nose," Frank frowned, but he didn't push on, just let Gerard calm down, and then when he was calm, Gerard kissed him, moving some of Frank's hair out of his face, and then resting his head on Frank's shoulder. 

Frank let Gerard rest there for a few seconds, before he poked Gerard's side. Gerard sat up, and looked at Frank. "Where are we?" Frank asked. 

"At a hospital in Atlanta."

"A hospital?" Frank asked. Gerard nodded, and Frank looked around the room. Everything was white, and that would explain Gerard's clothes, and his too, now that he noticed it. "Wait, what about Mikey? And Ray and Bob?" Frank asked. Gerard just smiled.

"They're here?"

"They're the ones who bailed us out."

Frank frowned. "What d'you mean?"

"You ruined Brendon's leg," Gerard said. "He won't be able to walk on it for at least a month, maybe longer. They were gonna kick us out, even though you were even awake, but then Mikey just appeared, and said that we were with him, and-"

"They let us stay? Just like that?" 

"Just like that."

Frank smiled, only a tiny bit, because if he'd have smiled anymore, he was sure his nose was going to explode. They sat together for a couple more minutes, until the door to the room opened, and a guy with light brown, almost blonde hair walked in. He was wearing the same thing as Gerard and Frank, but he had his own tag clipped onto the pocket. 

"Hey," The guy said. "Pete wants to talk to you both, if that's okay?"

"Sure, Patrick, thanks."

Patrick smiled at Gerard, and then at Frank. "You okay?" He asked. 

"Yeah."

"Pete makes too many broken noses around here to count anymore. You're lucky I've dealt with so many or there'd be pretty bad bruising."

"Oh, you fixed my nose? Thanks." 

Patrick smiled again at Frank. "I'll see you guys in room 4H in a sec," Patrick went to leave, but then he turned back to them. "Oh, and by the way? Pete's a little...angry," Patrick said. "I'd try not to piss him off, if I were you."

* * *

Gerard and Frank walked along the corridor to room 4H, and Frank was surprised to see so many people walking around. He counted 10 people walking past him in the corridor, wearing the same thing as himself and Gerard, and then at least 4 people wearing white lab coats and carrying clipboards, which he guessed were doctors. 

When they walked past a window, he noticed that it was still really quite light outside. "How long was I out for?" Frank asked. Gerard frowned, and then shrugged. 

"A day, give or take a few hours."

"A day?" Frank gasped. 

"Well, you woke up for a few minutes, enough time to give you a drink and a little food, but you feel back asleep after."

"Sorry," Frank muttered, and Gerard just shrugged and then smiled, kissing the side of Frank's head.

When they reached 4H, there were two guys standing outside. One of them was a lot taller than Frank, and was wearing a black t-shirt, and green pants. He was also holding a gun, and Frank noticed that his nametag said 'Dallon'. The other guy was a lot smaller, not much taller than Frank, and he looked a lot friendlier than Dallon. His nametag said 'Andy', and he smiled a little at Frank as Gerard walked behind him into the room. 

The guy who had broken his nose, Pete, was sitting in a chair, next to Patrick, and also Brendon, who was gripping tightly onto a pair of crutches. Mikey was also there, sitting opposite Pete, talking to him. Pete looked up when Gerard and Frank walked in, as did Brendon, whereas Patrick just smiled at them. Mikey was the only one who actually stood up, almost tripping over the leg of his chair whilst walking over to Frank. He tugged Frank into a hug, and patted his back. "It's good to see you awake. Gerard wouldn't leave your side."

Frank laughed a little, wincing when his nose stung, and patted Mikey's back too. 

The three of them sat down, Frank between Gerard and Mikey, and Pete staring Frank down. "You haven't made the best impression." Pete said to Frank. Frank muttered an apology, and then looked at Brendon. 

"You took our bags, and our only food and ammo. What else was I gonna do?"

"Not seriously injure me?" Brendon ased. 

"Dude, you took our stuff," Gerard said. 

Brendon just rolled his eyes again, and then looked expectantly at Pete. Pete shifted in his seat a little, and then looked at Mikey, who was looking hopefully at him.  

"Okay, listen," Pete said, turning his attention back to Gerard and Frank. "You two aren't the most liked around here. Brendon's the best for our runs, and he can't walk on his own because of you."

"You fucking broke my nose, we're even!" Frank said.

"Whatever," Pete said. "You're gonna have to pull your weight, like the rest of us. Can either of you do first aid?"

"I guess," Frank said. Gerard raised his eyebrow at him, but Frank just shrugged. "My mom taught me."

"Okay, what can you do, Gerard?" Pete asked.

"I'm fast. I can run. I can take Brendon's place on the runs until his leg has healed."

"Gerard, no," Frank said. Gerard could be killed whilst out on a run, and he'd never forgive himself. 

Gerard just nodded at Pete, ignoring Frank.

"Good, you two have something to do now," Pete said. "But be warned- any disorder that you two cause will mean you're out of here. Got it?"

"Yeah," Gerard said, before Frank could say anything else. 

When they got up to leave, Pete saw them to the door, letting Gerard and Mikey go out first, before grabbing Frank's arm. "You're lucky your boyfriends brother is a good kid," Pete muttered. 

"He's not my-" Frank said, but stopped himself. 

Pete let his arm go, and Frank walked out of the room, and caught up with Mikey and Gerard. 

"-they said his eyesight might be a little blurry for the first few minutes when he wakes up. Not that he's gonna go fucking blind!" Mikey said, making his brother laugh. 

"Sorry, I was just worried," Gerard said, smiling at Frank was he started walking beside him. Gerard held out his hand for Frank, who took it without a second thought. Mikey made a gagging noise, earning himself an elbow in the ribs from Gerard. 

"Let's go find Ray and Bob," Mikey said, and Gerard and Frank nodded in agreement. 

* * *

Ray and Bob were in the food court, on the second floor. Frank had overheard a guard talking about the entire bottom floor to be infected with Biters, or Geeks, as they'd called them. Frank was on edge for the whole two minutes that they'd been looking for Ray and Bob, because there was a set of doors just outside the food court which he was pretty sure led to a set of stairs, which meant Biters could attack them at anytime. But then he asked Mikey, who just rolled his eyes, and told him that they'd gotten rid of the stairs, so the Biters couldn't get up to them. 

"How the fuck do you just get rid of stairs?" Frank asked Gerard, who just shrugged. 

"Bombs? Grenades? Maybe they just put up a 'no entry' sign."

When they found Ray and Bob, they were eating beans and bread, and they stood up when they saw Frank.

"You're awake!" Ray said. "We thought Gerard had superglued himself to the chair next to your bed. He didn't move once."

"I moved to go pee," Gerard said. 

"That doesn't count as moving," Bob said. "Moving means something productive, like helping us cook food for people? Changing beds? Not waiting for your boyfriend to wake up." 

Gerard rolled his eyes, and then dragged Frank away from Ray and Bob, and over to the kitchen, where people were serving beans and bread for lunch. They were handed plastic plates, and given three spoonfuls of beans and a slice of bread each. Gerard told Frank to and sit back down with Ray, Bob and Mikey, whilst he got them a glass of water each. As soon and Frank sat down, Mikey turned to him, and said, "Are you really dating my brother?"

Frank blushed, and shrugged. "I mean, we can't really go out on a date, you know. We're sort of in the middle of the end of the world."

"You've kissed him, right? So you're dating."

"I guess?" Frank frowned. "We haven't had time to talk about it."

Mikey smirked, but left the topic alone when Gerard came back over with their drinks. "You not getting any food, Mikes?"

"I ate earlier," Mikey said. "And the food is gross, anyway."

"It's food," Ray said, taking a bite of his bread. "Be grateful, Mikey."

Mikey muttered something about Ray needing to fuck off, before he said he was going to find Pete. 

"He's weird," Gerard said. "Pete is scary."

"Eh," Frank ate the final piece of his lunch, and then drunk his water. 

When Gerard had finished, they left Bob and Ray in the food court, and went back to Frank's room. They squashed up on the bed together, and Gerard made sure Frank's nose was okay. "It's fine, Gee, just don't make me laugh, because then it hurts."

Gerard promised not to make Frank laugh, and then kissed him quickly, before laughing himself. "I can't believe I'm kissing someone in the middle of the apocalypse."

Frank rolled his eyes and then kissed Gerard again. Either could he, really. Though it didn't really occur to him that he'd already kissed someone before Gerard. He just thought about Gerard there and then, because Gerard was really the only thing that mattered to him. 

No one else. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you don't ship pete and mikey, don't worry, i'm not gonna put them together. frerard is really the only fake-irl ship in this story. pete just likes mikey bcos mikey is cool !
> 
> cheesy ending, sorry. i just wanted to get my point across


	16. Spit On And Shoved To Agree

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ay i knew i'd update quick. i'm back to school tomorrow but i'll start writing a little more of the next chapter as soon as i've posted this one so hopefully there should be another update by tomorrow or tuesday (:

When Frank and Gerard went down to the food court the next day, Pete, Patrick and Brendon were sitting where they'd been sitting yesterday, and at the same table as them was Mikey. Frank frowned, but Gerard just ignored it, walking over to the kitchen where there was either toast and beans or toast and eggs. Frank sighed, taking the beans, and then grabbing a slice of toast. Gerard raised his eyebrow at Frank, and took the eggs. "I'm vegan," Frank said, and Gerard nodded. 

"Can you really afford to be a vegan when the only food you might be able to get is meat?" Patrick said. Frank and Gerard both turned their heads, to see Patrick smiling a little at them. 

"Just because the world has ended doesn't mean I'm gonna stop being vegan." Frank said. Patrick shrugged, taking a plate, and his food, and then following them to another table. 

"Do you not want to sit with Mikey?" Patrick asked Gerard. 

"I don't want to sit with the big bosses. They don't seem to like us," Gerard answered. 

"Pete's okay, just as long as you don't cause him trouble," Patrick said. "It's Brendon you need to be careful of. He's okay, if you're on his good side. Which luckily, I have kept on ever since I met him. However, Frank, you've managed to completely fuck up."

Frank snorted. "Great. Is he gonna stab me in the thigh now, just to get even?"

"Maybe," Patrick said. Frank's eyes went wide- he'd meant it as a joke!- and Patrick just looked over to the table where Pete, Mikey and Brendon were. "I'd keep your thighs to yourself, though. Keep all body parts away from him, actually."

Gerard coughed, stopping the conversation there. "Did you know Brendon before everything happened?"

Patrick shook his head. "I knew Pete. We've been friends for ages. But we found Brendon and this other guy, Ryan. They were both really fucking ill, like, they hadn't eaten in ages and Ryan looked like he was gonna die any second. So we gave them food, and well, they just stayed with us for a while. They got better, got faster. We found a few other people and found this hospital, and after a few weeks of clearing it out, we took out the stairs to the first floor and set up camp. We found more people, started making food, and well, then we got here."

"Is Ryan still here?" Gerard asked. 

Patrick took a bite of his piece of toast, and then looked back around to see if Brendon was trying to overhear what they were saying. When he was sure he wasn't, he turned back around. "Ryan was a really good doctor. He knew a load of medicines and how to use them. He stayed as head doctor here for a while. Hell, I just handed him things. I knew nothing. He just taught me everything. But one day, he and Brendon just had this huge argument, and Ryan decided to go out with a group on a run to get away from it all. When he came back, well...he'd been bitten by a Geek, but didn't tell anyone. When everyone found out, Brendon blamed himself for it. He lost it when Pete told Ryan he could either die there and then or could leave and wait it out. Brendon left for a couple days to go find Ryan. But he came back. And, well, we just don't talk about it anymore."

"Sorry," Gerard muttered. Patrick shrugged. 

"Ryan was a great guy, but the worst thing anyone can do is not tell anyone about a bite."

They ate in silence after that, until Patrick asked where they'd come from. "New Jersey." Frank said. 

"Pete and I came from Chicago, as did Andy and Joe."

"Same as Bob." Gerard said. 

"Brendon and Ryan had come from Vegas."

"That's a fucking long way." Frank said. 

"Tell me about it. How'd you guys even know to come to Atlanta anyway?" Patrick asked. 

"We just kept driving. Our house back in Jersey got taken over, and we ended up in South Carolina for a bit. Frank and I got separated from the others, and they said they'd heard your signal and were heading out to find you guys."

"Oh yeah!" Patrick said. "Mikey called in on the radio. We hadn't heard anything through that piece of garbage for months. Pete wanted to throw it out. Lucky he didn't."

They all finished their breakfast off, and then Pete came over with Mikey and Brendon, handing Patrick a piece of paper. Patrick took it, and then nodded. "Okay, well, Frank, you're with me for the day. Gerard, you follow Brendon and Pete. They'll show you where all the weapons are."

Gerard kissed Frank goodbye quickly, before following Pete out of the food court. Brendon stared daggers into Frank, before hopping after them on his crutches. Frank rolled his eyes at Brendon, and then, after Patrick had checked the piece of paper again, followed him back upstairs. 

* * *

There wasn't really much first aid for Frank to do. No one had gone out on a run that day, which meant there wasn't anyone who was injured. Patrick just got him sorting out medicines, and at one point or another during the morning, Brendon came in to have his bandage and leg checked on. Frank handed Patrick the painkillers, but almost dropped them when Brendon managed to trip him up with his good leg and made Frank practically fall onto Patrick. 

"Sorry," Frank said to Patrick, whilst glaring at Brendon. "Must've tripped over the fucking air."

After Brendon left, it was time for lunch, and Patrick and Frank walked downstairs together. Pete, Brendon and Mikey were already there, but Gerard was absolutely nowhere to be seen. Frank asked where he was, but Pete just told him he was probably finishing cleaning the weapons. 

"You've got him cleaning fucking weapons?" Frank asked, and Pete nodded. 

"There isn't much else to do around here. He'll be out on runs soon enough. Until Brendon's leg is better. I mean, Gerard might be good on runs, so he might stay with us. But after, if he's bad, he'll just be cleaning weapons for the rest of his life."

Frank rolled his eyes, and grabbed his plate and drink, and went to find Ray and Bob. Ray had been helping out in the kitchens during the morning, whilst Bob had been outside working on some cars. They asked Frank how his morning had been, and Frank just groaned, and rested his head on the table. 

"I'm gonna take a guess and say it was really shit?" Bob asked. 

"Spot on," Frank muttered. 

During the last couple of minutes of lunch, Gerard came downstairs, looking really tired from working so hard. He smiled over at Frank, quickly going to get his lunch, but the moment he was about to sit down next to Frank, Pete and Brendon came over and told Gerard he needed to come back to work. Gerard sighed, taking his sandwich and quickly downing his drink. He kissed the top of Frank's head, and then followed Pete and Brendon back to work. Patrick came back over, and Frank went with him back upstairs. 

"They've got Gerard working so hard," Frank said. "We've been here for like, a day?"

"Two days, you were out for one." Patrick corrected him.

"Whatever." Frank said, and went back to stocking painkillers in a cupboard. 

Later in the afternoon, Frank saw Mikey wandering around the corridors, and when Patrick's back was turned, he followed Mikey, and then asked him why he wasn't doing any work. 

"I don't know, Pete just said I didn't have to work if I didn't want to."

"What the fuck? They've got Gerard working so fucking hard and you're not doing anything?"

Mikey shrugged, and then started to walk away. "Maybe you shouldn't have stabbed Brendon in the leg." He called back. 

Frank watched Mikey walk away, and then kicked the wall closest to him. He then heard Patrick call him, and went back. 

* * *

At dinner, Frank couldn't believe it. There was pasta. Actual pasta. His stomach rumbled at the thought of it, and not only that, but Gerard was actually there to eat with him, unlike at lunch. He grabbed two plates- one for him, and one for Gerard (who he'd told to just sit down, and he'd get his food for him)- and started piling pasta on them. He was grinning as he walked back to his table. 

Frank barely thought about anything as he fell face down onto the floor, dropping his and Gerard's food everywhere. He was ready to get angry at himself, but when he saw a crutch right where he'd tripped over, and Brendon looking down at him innocently.

"Poor Frankie," Brendon said. Everyone else in the room was quiet, because the pasta had gone _everywhere_ and so attracted everyones attention. "That sucks. No dinner for you, then."

Frank scowled, and then jumped up, swinging his fist, aimed for Brendon's face. Brendon managed to duck, but not before Frank could knee him in his crotch. "You're a fucking piece of shit!" Frank shouted at Brendon, and went to punch him again, but someone pulled him backwards, and kept his hands behind his back. 

"Frank, that's a warning," Pete shouted in his ear. "You cause anymore disturbances, and you are out of here."

Frank managed to wriggle out of Pete's grasp, and pushed him backwards. "That was not my fucking fault! I didn't start it! He tripped me up!"

"No I didn't!" Brendon said. 

"Your last warning." Pete said, and then went to sit back down with Mikey, Patrick and Brendon. 

Frank stared at his and Gerard's food, all over the floor. He sighed, and then went back to go and get more food. Everyone had started to talk again, but Frank could still hear Pete calling him, asking where he thought he was going. "To get my fucking food," Frank said. 

"There won't be enough for everyone else, then. It's just tough luck." Frank was ready to burst, and just wanted to punch _something_. He saw Gerard sitting at their table, talking to Ray and Bob. He seemed to not have noticed what happened to Frank, which made it even worse, because he'd have to explain that  _he dropped their fucking_ _food_ _._

Frank walked over to Gerard, Ray and Bob. Gerard looked at him expectantly as he dropped down onto his seat. "Brendon tripped me up, and I dropped the pasta. And Pete said I couldn't go get anymore. Gee, I'm sorry, I know you must be  _starving-_ "

Frank felt like he was going to cry, but Gerard just shook his head, and smiled a little at him. "Hey, it's okay. I'm fine. Not hungry." 

They both frowned when Gerard's stomach made a noise like a dying whale. 

"Brendon is fucking out to ruin my life. I bet he doesn't even know my last name. You have to know your enemies last name, it's like...a rule. So you can call them that before you battle to the death."

Gerard laughed, and then leaned over to kiss the side of Frank's mouth. "It's okay. I know where they keep cans of beans anyway. We can just eat some later."

"But that's not pasta! I haven't eaten pasta in months."

"It's okay. We'll survive." 

Mikey was still hanging out with Pete, and Frank felt a little let down by him. But, as long as Mikey was happy here, it didn't really matter that they weren't.

After dinner, they had bite checks, just incase someone had managed to get infected, despite only four people leaving the hospital all day. No one was infected, which meant they could all go to their rooms, or go to the library (which Frank hadn't been told about). Curfew was at 8:30pm when all of the lights would go off so as not to attract too many Biters. 

Gerard and Frank stayed in Frank's room, and Frank was starting to fall asleep just as the lights went out. He sighed, deciding to stay awake for a little longer. "I don't like it here." He said, twisting his head round to look at Gerard, who had his arm wrapped around his waist. 

"Give it a couple of days. It'll get better, I guess."

"I don't know, Gee. Patrick's nice, and so are everyone else. But Pete and Brendon...I'm sure they're out to get us."

Gerard laughed, and then kissed Frank's jaw. "I don't think they're out to get us. They're just trying to piss us off a little, get back at you for stabbing Brendon in the thigh. The Walkers, however, are out to get you. They will sabotage  _everything_."

Frank laughed, and then laid back down properly again. Gerard fell asleep before him, but Frank stayed up longer than he'd expected, wondering how they'd actually ended up here. He didn't like it, and he already wanted out. He needed a plan. 

Well, first, he needed to actually find a way out. 


	17. If You Were Here I'd Never Have A Fear...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i adore brendon urie but i had to have a 'bad guy' in this story and unfortunately his character fit the role well. soz bdon.

It had been a week since they'd arrived at the hospital, and everyday that Frank had been conscious, Brendon had made his life hell. Brendon had decided to snap one of his crutches in half, and plant it in Frank's room, so during one of the room inspections whilst they were being checked for bites, one of the guards found the snapped crutch, and Frank just sighed, apologised to Brendon, and then, when they were allowed back into their rooms, ranted to Gerard about it. 

Another instance was when Patrick lab coat went missing, and Mikey found it hanging out of Pete's window, with 'BRENDON SUCKS' written on the back in what everyone was sure was blood but what looked and smelt like really old ketchup. All the signs pointed to Frank doing this, but there were only two people who actually had keys to Pete's room, and that was Patrick and Brendon, and so how would he have gotten in there? But either way, Brendon said he hadn't done it, as did Frank, but when they found a half empty bottle of ketchup in one of Frank's bedside draws, Pete told Frank he was going to be on kitchen duty for a week, which meant he'd only get 10 minutes each meal time. 

"I'm so pissed off," Frank said, when he finally fell into bed after a really long day, with only half an hours break throughout the entire day. "I could sleep for years."

Gerard smiled a little at him. He pulled Frank close and pressed his lips against Frank's, and just at that moment, the lights went off, and Frank sighed as Gerard pulled the sheets tight around them. "I really don't like it here, Gee." He said. 

Gerard stroked Frank's hip, and just shrugged a little. "We're safe here, you know. No chance of getting infected."

"That still doesn't mean I like it anymore, you know," Frank said. 

"I know. But we'll always have food. We'll aways have water."

"We'll always be annoyed by Brendon," Frank added, and Gerard just laughed softly. 

"That's true. But, hey, we can't be separated from the others, right?"

"We barely see Mikey, Ray or Bob, and when we do, its just passing them in the corridors or at lunch. If I'm ever allowed to actually sit down with you guys at lunch again."

Gerard just kissed Frank again, and then told him to go to sleep. Frank nodded, and closed his eyes. He could still feel Gerard stroking his hip, but knew he'd fallen asleep when he stopped a few minutes later. Frank just kept his eyes closed, and hoped that he'd wake up, with the world as it was before. Hopefully at home, in his bed, and if he was lucky enough, with Gerard too. 

* * *

"We're going on a run today," Pete said to Frank as he passed him in the corridor. Frank was on his way to Patrick's office, and hadn't seen Gerard that morning, apart from waking up with him, and hugging him quickly before he had to go and help out in the kitchens. "Gerard's with Mikey and Dallon and Brendon in the food court at the moment. I'm just gonna go get Andy, but uh, if you want to say goodbye to him, then I can tell Patrick that you'll be along in a bit."

Frank was taken aback by Pete being so nice to him. "A'ight. Thanks Pete." Frank said. Pete nodded at him, and Frank turned back around, and went back the way he'd come. He practically jumped down all of the stairs to get to the food court, and when he got there, Gerard was wearing a bullet proof vest and clothes like the guards wore.

Gerard looked up from his gun which he'd been loading when Frank walked in, and stood up. Frank ran over, and hugged Gerard tight. "We're literally just going over the road to search the pharmacy. We'll be two hours, tops." Gerard promised. 

"Okay. Come find me when you get back. I'll be with Patrick, you know where," Frank said. Gerard smiled, and kissed Frank.

"Ew, stop, little brother in the room," Mikey said, and Frank laughed, before pulling away from Gerard. Brendon was sitting next to Dallon on another table, and was staring daggers into the back of Frank's head when he spotted him. 

"Ugh," Frank said. Gerard just shook his head, saying  _don't bother._ Frank nodded, and then sat down with Gerard.

Pete and Patrick both walked into the food court a few minutes later, and Andy, the guard Frank had seen the other day, was behind them. Pete, Frank had noticed, was wearing the same thing as Gerard, as were Andy and Dallon. "You guys ready to leave?" Pete asked. Everyone stood up, apart from Mikey and Brendon, and Frank hugged Gerard quickly before letting him go. 

Pete checked through each of their backpacks, and then nodded. Patrick followed the group out of the food court, and Frank hopped from one foot to another for a couple of seconds, until he gave in and followed them. 

There was an elevator shaft a little way down the corridor from the food court, that Frank could see, where the group were standing, and he frowned, and then jogged over to them. "What are you doing?" He asked. 

"Going on a run?" Pete said, a little confused as to why Frank was asking that.

"No," Frank said. A growl echoed up the elevator shaft, and Frank squeezed past Andy and Pete so he could see down to the bottom. There were at least four Biters down there, and Frank stepped back, just in case he fell. "Why are you going down an elevator shaft? How do you plan to not be eaten when you get down there?"

"Well," Pete said. Frank turned around to see that he had a piece of rope tied around his waist, which was then looped over a piece of metal on the top of the elevator shaft. "There's a thing called a crossbow, which is pretty quiet. Which I happen to be pretty handy with. I'm gonna take 'em out, and that- hopefully- won't grab any of the others attention."

Frank stepped back even more as Pete grabbed, aimed and then fired his crossbow, and took out all of the Biters. They all fell down pretty loudly, but no more Biters made themselves known. 

"Okay, I'm going down first," Pete said, pulling on the rope hard, to make sure that it would take his weight, before handing the end of the rope that wasn't tied around his waist to Dallon and Andy. "You two got it?" He asked, and they nodded. 

"Okay," Pete looked the piece of rope up and down, and then sat down on the floor, with his legs dangling over the edge. "Okay." He repeated. Patrick put his hand on Pete's shoulder, giving him a confidence boosting smile. Pete nodded, smiling a little bit back at Patrick, then taking a deep breath. He twisted his body round and pushed his hands on the floor, then gaving Dallon and Andy one last nod, making sure they were gripping tight onto the rope, before dropping down into the shaft.

"You okay, Pete?" Dallon called, but Andy shushed him. 

"The Geeks." Andy reminded him, and Dallon cursed under his breath. 

"Yes, I'm okay. I have done this a million times before. I am absolutely _fine._ " Pete said. (He was obviously not fine, but none of them decided to mention the fact that he was breathing rather heavily for someone who wasn't scared). Dallon and Andy let the rope go inch by inch, until Pete finally landed on the floor. He undid the rope from around his waist, and Dallon pulled it back up. 

"Alright, Andy next." Pete called up, and Andy took the rope from Dallon, and tied it around his waist. When it was tight and secure like Pete's had been, Gerard took Andy's place, and then they lowered Andy. Next was Dallon, with Patrick taking his place, and then it got to Gerard's turn. He stared awkwardly at the rope, and then tied it around his waist once, before starting to sit down. Patrick just laughed at him, and shook his head. 

"You will fall to your death if you tie that once. Here," Patrick said, motioning Gerard back towards him. Gerard let Patrick do a knot he was pretty sure hadn't even existed up until that moment, but then Patrick nodded, and Gerard sat down on the floor, and looked up at Frank. 

"Be careful," Frank whispered, and Gerard nodded. Frank and Patrick grabbed the rope, and then Gerard slid off of the floor into the shaft. They dropped him down slowly, until they heard the sound of his feet hitting the floor, and a mutter of "Oh that's fucking  _gross"._

Frank looked over the edge of the elevator shaft, and saw that, from the lights of their torches, that a lot of the floor was covered in Biter guts and blood. Frank wrinkled his nose, and then gave Gerard a small smile as he'd looked up to wave Frank off. "C'mon, loverboy," Dallon said, and then, within seconds, Gerard and the others had gone. 

Frank sighed, still staring down at the pile of insides down on the floor below, until Patrick tugged his arm, pulling him away from the elevator shaft. "Time to get to work. Keep your mind off of it. And hey, since Pete isn't here, no ones gonna make you help out in the kitchen, right?"

"Really? Thanks, Patrick," Frank smiled. With one last glance down at the bottom of the elevator shaft, he left with Patrick. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> when i typed thanks pete, i wasn't even thinking about the meaning behind that but now its hilarious sorry


	18. ...So Go On Live Your Life...

We'll _be two hours, tops. We'll be two hours, tops. We'll be two hours, tops._

Frank prodded a piece of pasta with his fork, but didn't bother eating it. He couldn't even if he'd tried. He just didn't have the appetite. 

It had been almost nine hours since Dallon, Andy, Pete and more importantly  _Gerard_ had gone out on a run. No sign of their return, no sign of them anywhere, actually. It was already the last meal of the day, for fuck sake. Patrick said they could have just been held up, maybe by a group of Biters passing through. Frank believed him for the first two hours they'd been gone longer for, but after that, he just couldn't.

Frank had always been the one to expect the worse. When he was ten and his mom went out to get groceries, and she was fifteen minutes late, he thought she'd been murdered, but it turned out she'd seen one of her friends and they'd stopped to talk. And another time when he was sixteen and one of his friends hadn't turned up to school, Frank thought he'd been attacked by a rogue Biter, but the guy had had a cold and his parents wanted him to stay in their apartment until he got better. Frank was just one of those guys. 

But this-  _this_ was when he didn't think he was being stupid. _We'll be two hours, tops._ The words repeated constantly in his head, and he sighed loudly, letting his fork clatter onto the table, making the people on the tables look around at him. "The fuck you think you're looking at?" He growled to one of the guys on the tables next to him. The guys eyes went wide, and he turned away from Frank. 

"They'll be fine," Patrick said, but Frank just ignored him, pushing his plate away and then resting his head down on the table. 

"They'll be fine, Frank," Mikey repeated what Patrick had said. Frank ignored him as well, but then Brendon decided to kick him under the table, drawing Frank's attention to him. 

"Listen to your friends, Frankie," Brendon sneered. 

"Go fuck yourself, Urie," Frank said. Brendon gasped dramatically, but instead of everyone just leaving him to do as he pleased, Patrick shook his head at Brendon. 

Feigning innocence, Brendon just started complaining about all the things Frank had supposedly done and said to him. Patrick just told him to stop, to grow up, and Brendon, for the first time ever (and Frank was pretty sure of that), backed down, and just continued eating his food. 

Once most of the people had left the food court and gone upstairs for bite checks (which Patrick they  could get out of, if they didn't want to go), Frank, Bob, Ray and Mikey stayed down in the food court. It was like they were waiting for _something_ to happen, but they just didn't know  _what._

"You know, I'm sure they're all fine," Ray said. "My guess is they've found a load of stuff, and it got dark, and they decided to wait it out for the night. They'll head back at sunrise tomorrow. We'll all wake up, and they'll be there."

"Or Pete just wanted a fucking nap," Mikey said, laughing, like it was his own personal joke. The other three all looked at him, a little confused. Mikey just looked back at them, confused as to why they  _weren't_ laughing with him. 

"I never pinned Pete down as a nap person." Frank said. 

"Oh trust me, he fucking is."

"Of course  _you'd_ know, Mikeyway," Bob said, and Mikey rolled his eyes, before punching Bob on his shoulder. 

Frank instantly jumped up off of his seat when he heard someone running towards the foot court. There was a guy, wearing the same lab coat that Patrick had. He was sure his name was Spencer, but he wasn't one hundred percent sure. All Frank knew was that he looked extremely out of breath. 

"It's Pete- Patrick got a call in on the CB line, and-"

"What's happening?" Mikey asked, standing up next to Frank. 

"-and it's not good." 

* * *

Frank, Mikey, Patrick, Ray, Bob and Spencer all stood around the CB which was on the desk in Patrick's room. Pete was speaking fast through the speaker, sounding worried and nervous, which scared the hell out of Frank.

"-then these fucking bandits came out of nowhere," Pete said. His voice was cracking up a little, whether because of the bad signal or because he was crying, Frank couldn't tell. "They took most of the medicine we'd found, and most of our water and food, and Gerard just- he just jumped in front of me because they were going to fucking stab me!"

"Pete, slow down," Patrick said. 

"Yeah, okay," Pete said. He took a deep breath, and then started again. "They got his side pretty bad, and he bled a bit- he's still bleeding now- but he's breathing, and he's asleep, but he's bleeding. We got some bandages on him, and we stitched him up a little, but then he passed out and it got dark, and- I'm sorry Mikey, Frank, I'm sorry-"

"Pete, it's okay," Mikey said. "As long as he's alive-"

"-He's alive. But...But I don't know for how much longer-"

Frank buried his head in his hands, and tugged at his hair. He couldn't believe what Pete was saying. 

"Just keep him breathing, keep him hydrated and fed with whatever food you have. Keep pressure on the wound," Patrick instructed.

"Okay, alright- you hear that Andy? Keep pressure on the- yeah, okay. Okay. When he wakes up, in the morning, we're gonna come back." Pete said. 

"You want a few of us to come meet you?" Mikey asked. 

"No, Mikes, stay there," Pete said. "I don't want to risk losing others, if this all goes to shit."

"Don't say that," Frank said. "Don't say that."

"Just stay there, okay?" Pete said. "Just stay safe-"

Then there was white noise on Pete's end of the line, and then the signal cut out. Frank felt more like he wanted to hit something than cry, but instead of doing either, he turned to Mikey. "Are you okay?"

"Me?" Mikey asked. "I'm fine."

"Are you sure?" Frank asked. "Pete and Gerard are there and if they die, you're gonna lose two people you care abou-"

"I'm fine," Mikey assured him. Frank nodded, guessing that that was Mikey's final answer. 

"Okay. Okay, we need to set up people on watch by the elevator shaft, for when they come back," Patrick said.

"I'll take first watch with Bob," Ray said.

"Then Jon and I'll take next watch," Spencer added. "I'm sure Frank and Mikey will want to be there in the early morning for when they come back."

"Thank you," Frank said. 

"You two go get some sleep," Patrick said. "I'll come get you both at 7 a.m."

Frank thanked him, and then went with Mikey back towards their rooms. "Gerard will be fine," Mikey said, as he went to open the door to his room. "He'll be fine. He always is."

"Okay, Mikes. I'll see you soon."

Mikey nodded at Frank, and then disappeared into his room. Frank past three more doors to his room, and then went inside. 

As he climbed into bed, he shivered, wondering why it felt so cold in his room. As he lay there, eyes wide open for another two hours, it finally hit him, just as he fell asleep, that Gerard wasn't there with him, to keep him warm. 

He couldn't stay awake long enough to be angry with himself.

* * *

Frank shot up in bed, waking up to the sound of banging on his bedroom door. "Frank, hurry the fuck up!" Bob called for him. Frank didn't even bother putting any shoes on as he ran out of his room, and followed Bob down the corridor, then down the two flights of stairs, towards the elevator shaft. Pete, Andy and Dallon were sitting up against the wall, being handed drink and food by Mikey. They looked ready to pass out from lack of sleep, but the moment Pete saw Frank, he stood up, and stepped forward to grab Frank's shoulders. 

"He's okay-"

"Where is he?"

"Patrick's stitching him up properly. It was a deep cut but he's cleaning it and shit that I don't know the medical words for but he's doing whatever it is that needs to be done."

Frank nodded. "Thank you," He said to Pete, and then looked over at Andy and Dallon. "Thank you for getting him back."

They raised their drinks towards Frank, and then Frank looked back at Pete. "He'll be okay." Pete said, and Frank nodded. 

Mikey got Pete to sit back down afterwards, and Frank leant up against the wall opposite, silently grateful that Gerard was back and alive, but angry that he'd had to be hurt, on his first run. Why Gerard? It was an awful thing to think, but... _why? Gerard just- he just jumped in front of me because they were going to fucking stab me!_  Because Gerard was trying to save Pete.

Frank's head shot up, as did everyone else's, when Patrick appeared in front of them. "He's okay for now," He said. "He's passed out, but he's been passed out since he got here. So I can't really predict how long he'll be out for."

"But you can predict that he'll be completely okay, right?" Frank asked. 

Patrick wrung his hands, and then looked towards Pete, before looking back at Frank. "No, I can't do that. I can't lie to you Frank. The wound could get infected- none of us here are real  _doctors-_ we've had little training, but just enough to know how to do this. But theres a seventy percent chance he'll pull through-"

"Seventy percent?! That's nothing!"

"It's more than the thirty percent that he won't," Patrick added. 

"Yeah, but-"

"Take what you can get, Frank," Mikey said. "That's how I'm dealing with it. Seventy percent. That's good enough. And hey, if he wakes up, the it'll go up, right?"

Patrick nodded. "If he wakes up in the next few hours, it'll go up to at least ninety percent. If he wakes up today, it'll be about eighty percent. But if he doesn't wake up-"

"-then it'll stay at seventy?" Frank raised his eyebrow. 

"Then it'll probably be less."

* * *

Frank timidly opened the door to Gerard's room. There was a slight smell of metal in the air, which Frank could only guess was blood. He stepped out of the doorway, and let Patrick in first, watching as he checked Gerard's blood pressure, and that the stitches were holding up. Mikey stood next to Frank, and Pete was now standing on the other side of the room. They all watched as Gerard's chest rose and then fell, which gave them some indication that he was still okay- at least for now. 

"His breathing is more even than when I last checked on him." Patrick noted. 

"Is that giving you hope? That he'll pull through?"

"I've been hoping since the moment they got back," Patrick said. "I hope he will. I want to think he will."

They all stared at Gerard for a while, all willing him to wake up, but the only sign that he was actually alive was the beep of the heart beat monitor and his very, very soft breaths. 

"You can stay, Mikey. For when Gerard wakes up," Frank started to leave the room, but Mikey grabbed his arm before he could. 

"He'll want to see you when he wakes up. I'll stay with Pete, if thats okay?" Pete looked up at Mikey, and nodded. 

"Are you sure?" Frank asked. 

"Positive."

"Thanks," Frank smiled a little, and then Patrick ushered the other two out of the room. Frank grabbed a chair from the corner of the room, and pulled it up to next to Gerard's bed. 

He took Gerard's limp hand in his, and squeezed a little. "Hey, Gee?" Frank said, staring down at Gerard's hand as he spoke. "I'm sorry this happened to you."

Frank waited for Gerard to reply. He tried to look for anything- a heavier breath, a twitch of a finger- but nothing happened. "Okay, I'm hoping you're listening to me, because I'm not saying this again when you're awake," Frank took a deep breath. "I know you really didn't like me much when we first met, and I was too caught up in trying to find my family. And I really want to, still. But I'm gonna go wherever you go, Gee. If you want to stay here, then we'll stay. I just- I really love you, okay? I love you a lot."

Frank searched Gerard again, looking for Gerard to reply. Nothing. A slightly deeper breath, but nothing Frank would have noticed if he wasn't looking for it. "Okay, well, I'm going to assume you'd say 'I love you too' if you were awake."

Frank smiled at Gerard, and then looked back at their hands. The room was silent, again, apart from the constant beep of the heart beat monitor. Frank felt awkward, like he needed to say anything. But he couldn't think of anything, and he was sure that, if Gerard was awake, he wouldn't care anyway. Frank just sighed loudly, filling up the silence because _he_ didn't like it.

"Hey, Gee, another thing? I know I feel like I ask you way too many favours but, I won't ask for another one after this, I promise," Frank linked their hands this time, even though Gerard's grip wasn't tight on his. "Please,  _please,_ wake up."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry that ending was AWFUL
> 
> do you guys think this story is going too fast? idk i feel like if its not going at the pace it is now, it'll get boring
> 
> also like...do you guys like the story?


	19. ...Cause I Miss You More Than I Did Yesterday

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i haven't updated in a while because i've been (trying) to write another fanfic. it's almost 10k words long so far so hopefully that will be finished sometime this week???? possibly???? and one hint: vampires
> 
> anyway, here is chapter 19!!

Frank had been sitting with Gerard for hours. Patrick had come to sit with him for a little while, as had Mikey, and even Pete. Ray and Bob had bought him lunch, and dinner, but hadn't been able to stay long because they'd had to go and do their jobs during the day. Patrick had told Frank that he didn't even need to  _think_ about working that day. So Frank hadn't. 

He was half falling asleep when Pete came in again. All the lights were off, but Pete was carrying a flashlight so he could see where he was going. "Hey," Pete said from where he was standing by the door, and Frank's eyes opened slowly. 

"Oh, hey Pete," Frank mumbled, sitting up in his chair properly whilst rubbing his eyes. His hand had slipped out of Gerard's, and so he relinked them as soon as he'd noticed. 

"How you doing? You need a drink or anything?" 

Frank thought about it for a second, but then he shook his head. "Nah, I'm good thanks."

Pete walked over sat down on the chair on the other side of Gerard. He didn't say anything for a couple of minutes, and Frank started falling asleep. 

"I'm sorry this happened," Pete said, and Frank opened his eyes again. 

"It's not your fault." Frank assured him. 

"I feel like it  _is_ though. He just jumped in front of me...It was too late before I could do anything."

"Seriously, it's okay," Frank said. "He's gonna wake up, anyway."

"But if he doesn't-"

"He's going to wake up."

Pete opened his mouth to say something else, but closed it, and didn't say anything more. 

Pete left after a few minutes, which Frank was thankful for. It was getting awkward and he was tired and wanted to sleep. Which he couldn't do successfully if someone was basically  _watching_ him. 

Frank had no idea what time he woke up- all he knew was someone was coughing loud next to him. Frank's eyes shot open, and he jumped up out of his seat, almost tripping over the chair legs. He regained his balance, and in the dark of the room, he could just about make out Gerard's eyes opening. 

"Oh fuck, I don't know what to do!" Frank muttered. Gerard was coughing, maybe on his own spit or blood, Frank had no idea, but he just wouldn't stop. "Gee, hey, Gee, can you see me?" Frank asked. Gerard kept on coughing, but his eyes focused on Frank's face. 

"Okay, fuck, uh, here, I think I gotta-" Frank helped Gerard to turn on his side. Gerard kept on coughing, but not as loud and as painful sounding anymore. Frank was so caught up in the moment, that he hadn't properly realised that Gerard was  _awake._

He held Gerard's hair away from his face as he kept on coughing, and made sure that he wasn't coughing up any blood. After about ten or fifteen minutes, Gerard stopped, and just started breathing heavily as Frank looked down at him, concerned that he was going to start coughing again. When he was sure he wasn't Frank sat Gerard up, and then told him he was going to go and find Patrick, and he also told Gerard not to speak incase he started coughing again. Gerard nodded, looking at Frank with wide eyes the entire time. 

Frank quickly ran to go and find Patrick. Frank didn't bother knocking on Patrick's door, which obviously gave Patrick a slight heart attack. But when Frank explained why he was there, Patrick just climbed out of bed and followed Frank back to Gerard's room. 

Gerard was still sitting up, staring down at his hands when Frank and Patrick walked in. He looked confused, and in quite a bit of pain. Patrick asked Gerard how he was feeling, and Gerard shrugged, and then winced, gripping his side where he'd been stabbed. "You got stabbed, you remember that?" Patrick asked. Gerard nodded, and then looked at Frank, who was standing next to Patrick. 

"It hurts," Gerard croaked, and Frank's heart shattered. 

"It'll get better," Patrick said. "It's good that you woke up now, though. Any longer and you might not have pulled through."

Gerard's eyes went wide. "Really?"

"You're okay now, though," Patrick assured him. "Get some rest, though. Don't talk too much, either. We'll give it a few days and then we'll see how you're feeling then."

Gerard nodded, and then Patrick left, after wishing them both a good night, and closing the door behind him.

Frank went to help Gerard lay down, and then sat down on the chair next to him. "I don't really want you going back to sleep but I think you should," Frank said. Gerard was looking at him, and Frank couldn't believe that he was actually awake. "Get some rest, okay?"

Gerard nodded, and then offered his hand to Frank, who took it, and smiled a little. Gerard closed his eyes, but now, Frank didn't feel like he could sleep. He would, eventually, but he just stayed staring down at his and Gerard's hand for a while. 

* * *

Frank woke up to the sound of the bed creaking a little next to him. Gerard was trying to sit up by himself, and was failing miserably. Frank got up off of his chair, and helped Gerard sit up himself. 

"Sorry," Gerard muttered, when he was sitting up. "Thanks."

"You should have woken me up, Gee," Frank said, he leant forward to kiss Gerard's forehead, and then sat back down. 

"You looked too cute," Gerard smiled softly. Frank laughed a little, and then intertwined his and Gerard's fingers. 

"I'll bring you some breakfast back up when I go down, okay?" Frank asked. 

Gerard pouted. "I wanna come down." He said.

"You can't, you gotta rest." 

"But-"

"Rest," Frank said. "I'll bring Mikey up with me too. He'll want to see you." 

Gerard nodded, and then they both looked over to the door as Patrick walked in. "Sorry guys, I heard you both talking. Breakfast is starting now, so Frank, you wanna go down and I'll stay here for a little bit?"

"Yeah, okay," Frank agreed. He stood up, leaned over to kiss Gerard's cheek quickly, and then left just as Patrick was sitting down. 

Frank found Mikey with Pete and Brendon, and Mikey and Pete stood up when they saw Frank. Brendon ignored him, just kept on eating his breakfast and pretending as if Frank wasn't even there. "Is he awake? Is he okay?" Mikey asked. 

"Did Patrick not tell you?" Frank asked, and Mikey shook his head. "He woke up really early this morning. He's okay, just in a whole lot of pain." 

"Fuck, okay, good," Mikey smiled a little. 

"I'm sorry," Pete said. "But I'm glad he woke up."

"Yeah, me too." Frank said. 

They all ate breakfast quickly, and then Frank, followed by Pete and Mikey, took Gerard's breakfast upstairs. Gerard was listening to Patrick talk when they got there. Gerard smiled at Frank first, and then smiled at his brother. 

"Fuck Gerard, you can't just practically die on us like that," Mikey said, walking over and carefully hugging him. 

"Sorry," Gerard said. Mikey just rolled his eyes. 

They hung around for a while longer whilst Gerard ate his breakfast, but then Mikey went with Pete and Patrick had to go check on a couple of other people with injuries, leaving Frank with Gerard. "You go do something," Gerard said. "I wanna sleep."

"You sure?" Frank asked. Gerard nodded. "Alright." He helped Gerard lay down, and then kissed his forehead quickly and then left. 

He had a few hours to spare until lunch, and Patrick said he didn't have to work that day. He wandered around the hospital a little while, and then he stopped at a door. He'd never seen the door before. He hadn't actually been right to the back of the hospital before, so that was probably why. It looked different to usual doors, which was a weird thing to think but it was true. 

He carefully pushed the door, and it creaked a little, but with a little bit more of a push, the door swung open. 

It was a stairwell, that smelled like dust and dirt and Frank wrinkled his nose at the smell. He wasn't going to turn back though. Maybe this was just another stairwell leading downstairs that he hadn't seen. Which was probably the case. 

He walked down the first set of stairs, which, then another, then another. Frank stopped at the bottom set of stairs, and was confused when there were no more stairs. There was a door opposite him though, which had a tiny window in it. Frank frowned, and then walking over to the door. He went up on his toes, and put his eye up against the window. 

He could see outside. There were a couple of Biters there, but  _he could see outside._ If he wanted to leave, he could. He tried pushing the door, but it wouldn't budged. He tried again, and it moved slightly. Then again, and it moved a little more. "Oh, come _on_ ," Frank growled at the door, and pushed it again. It moved a more, and something outside the door squeaked on the floor. He heard Biters outside, but the gap in the door wasn't big enough for them to get to him. 

He could  _just_ make out that there was a car right outside the door, and he'd pushed the door into it and dented it a little. He couldn't get out, and he guessed even Mikey couldn't. But if someone from the outside pushed the car, he could get past. 

Frank had an idea. And a way out. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you liked it!!!!!


End file.
